What is the difference between food webs and food chains? What do each of
those show?
Food webs and food chains both show the flow of energy and nutrients through an ecosystem, but there are key differences between the two.
A food chain is a linear sequence of organisms in which each organism is eaten by the next organism in the chain. It is a simplified representation of the flow of energy and nutrients through an ecosystem. For example, a simple food chain might be grass → rabbit → fox, where the grass is eaten by the rabbit, which is then eaten by the fox.
A food web, on the other hand, is a more complex and interconnected system that shows multiple feeding relationships within an ecosystem. It consists of multiple interconnected food chains that show how different organisms are connected and rely on each other for energy and nutrients. A food web includes producers (plants), consumers (animals that eat other organisms), and decomposers (organisms that break down dead organisms and waste).
In summary, a food chain is a linear sequence of organisms in which each organism is eaten by the next, while a food web is a more complex and interconnected system that shows multiple feeding relationships within an ecosystem.