Diagram 1 shows a food web containing eight food chains that are marked numerically, i.e. each number indicates a food chain involving the primary producer up to the apex consumer. Refer to Diagram 2 for the categories of consumers in a food chain presented hierarchically. Describe the food web through these links, drawing examples from your natural environment, in at least 150 words. Use the following additional information if necessary: Primary producers (plants) occupy the bottom level in a food chain/food web; Apex consumers (hawk in Diagram 1) occupy the top level.

Our natural environment comprises several ecosystems, and

food

chains

are crucial to sustaining them. Diagram 1 depicts a

food

web with eight small

food

chains

found very close to human habitation. The

hawk

is at the top of the web as an apex

consumer

while

the plants, primary producers, are at the bottom. In the first

chain

, the plants are eaten by the rabbits who are hunted by the

hawk

.

Likewise

, there are mice and seed-eating birds that are dependent on plants for survival and are consumed by the

hawk

, shown in the second and fourth

chains

. The mice

also

contribute to the third

food

chain

where they are eaten by the snakes as secondary consumers, who in turn become a meal for the

hawk

at the apex. In the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth

chains

, the grasshopper is at the primary

consumer

level

. It is directly fed by the

hawk

in the fifth

food

chain

. In the sixth, the frog as a secondary

consumer

feeds on it, followed by the snake at the tertiary

level

and the

chain

thereafter

ends with the

hawk

. The grasshopper is eaten by other insects in the seventh

chain

. These insects are consumed at the tertiary

level

by insect-eating birds that sustain the

hawk

. The eighth

food

chain

has the highest number of links and includes all the hierarchical consumers listed in Diagram 2. It bifurcates from the

level

of the insects as secondary consumers

,

Remove the comma

apply

show examples

and has the frog as the tertiary, the snake as the quaternary and

finally

the

hawk

as the apex

consumer

. The

food

web reveals how damaging a single link can result in a widespread imbalance in nature.