First trophic level. The plants in this image, and the algae and phytoplankton in the lake, are primary producers. They take nutrients from the soil or the water, and manufacture their own food by photosynthesis, using energy from the sun.
Look up trophic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food web. Within a food web, a food chain is a succession of organisms that eat other organisms and may, in turn, be eaten themselves. The trophic level of an organism is the number of steps it is from the start of the chain. A food web starts at trophic level 1 with primary producers such as plants, can move to herbivores at level 2, carnivores at level 3 or higher, and typically finish with apex predators at level 4 or 5. The path along the chain can form either a one-way flow or a part of a wider food "web". Ecological communities with higher biodiversity form more complex trophic paths.
The word trophic derives from the Greek τροφή (trophē) referring to food or nourishment.[1]
^"Trophic". Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Retrieved 16 April 2017 – via www.merriam-webster.com.
Look up trophic in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. The trophiclevel of an organism is the position it occupies in a food web. Within a food web, a food...
predators are usually defined in terms of trophic dynamics, meaning that they occupy the highest trophiclevels. Food chains are often far shorter on land...
at each trophiclevel in an ecosystem. A pyramid of energy shows how much energy is retained in the form of new biomass from each trophiclevel, while...
plant growth, followed by corollary increases in subsequent trophiclevels. Consequently, trophic index may sometimes be used to make a rough estimate of...
connected to other trophic species. Food webs have trophiclevels and positions. Basal species, such as plants, form the first level and are the resource...
The trophiclevel index (TLI) is used in New Zealand as a measure of nutrient status of lakes. It is similar to the trophic state index but was proposed...
Trophic cascades are powerful indirect interactions that can control entire ecosystems, occurring when a trophiclevel in a food web is suppressed. For...
over time on changes in ocean trophiclevels as a primary indicator of marine biodiversity and health. The Marine Trophic Index is a measure of the overall...
amongst different trophiclevels to predict community dynamics; food chains are often the base level for theory development of trophiclevels and community/ecosystem...
algae and other plant-like organisms known as phytoplankton. The second trophiclevel (primary consumers) is occupied by zooplankton which feed off the phytoplankton...
biomagnification occurs across trophic (food chain) levels. Biodilution is also a process that occurs to all trophiclevels in an aquatic environment; it...
relatively inefficient at grazing. Trophiclevels are part of the holistic or complex systems view of ecosystems. Each trophiclevel contains unrelated species...
describes the efficiency with which energy is transferred from one trophiclevel to the next. It is determined by a combination of efficiencies relating...
describes the phenomenon of trophic cascade in specific terrestrial communities. A mesopredator is a medium-sized, middle trophiclevel predator, which both...
predation on herbivores, which in turn eat plants, as there are three trophiclevels involved. However, hyperparasites are smaller than predators, breed...
interactions. Another example of food web interactions are trophic cascades. Understanding trophic cascades has allowed ecologists to better understand the...
across ecosystems, and whether non-trophic interactions affect food webs randomly, or affect specific trophiclevels or functional groups. Although biological...
concentration of the chemical or metal increases as it moves up from one trophiclevel to another. Naturally, the process of bioaccumulation is necessary for...
Trophic coherence is a property of directed graphs (or directed networks). It is based on the concept of trophiclevels used mainly in ecology, but which...
incorporated into the biomass of a trophiclevel per unit of time is about one-tenth of the energy of the trophiclevel that it consumes. Waste and dead...
some plankton are able to benefit from more than just one trophiclevel. In this mixed trophic strategy—known as mixotrophy—organisms act as both producers...
pattern, the high and low trophiclevels are well-represented by high species diversity. However, the intermediate trophiclevel is only represented by one...
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