6th Class Science Food: Where Does It Come From? Food Chain

       Food Chain

Food chain is a sequence of organisms in an ecosystem, in which, each species is the food of the next member of the chain.

Look at the following figure of the food chain  

Here it has been shown how nutrients, after synthesizing in plants body, are transferred from one organism to another.

Food chain are composed of many components like producer and consumer.

Let us study them in detail.  

         Producer

Producers are those, which can synthesize food using carbon dioxide and water.

All the green plants are producers.

         Consumer

Animals and insects are consumer because they all, directly or indirectly, depend on plants for their food , On the basis of food that the animals take in, they have been classified into three groups, that is, herbivorous, carnivorous and omnivorous.  

         Herbivorous

Animals of this group feed on only green plants. In other word plant eating animals are called herbivorous. For example, buffalo, cow, camel etc.

         Carnivorous

Animals of this group feed on only flesh of other animals. In other words, flesh eating animals are called carnivorous. For example lion, tiger, fox, etc.

         Omnivorous

Animals of this group feed on both plants and flesh. For example, human, bear etc.