food web: Quick Facts

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A diagram of a temperate forest food web shows energy flow from the sun to an oak tree (producer), then to primary consumers like field mouse, quail, beetle, and squirrel, followed by secondary consumers such as hawk, frog, and raccoon, and tertiary consumers including wolf, red fox, and black bear. Arrows indicate feeding relationships. Detritivores like turkey vulture and crow, and decomposers such as bacteria and fungi, recycle nutrients back into the soil, nutrients, and water.

Orange larvae of the Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata) with black spots feeding on green leaves.

Juvenile tiger walking through shallow water approaches a wild boar carcass lying partially submerged near grassy banks.

A diagram of a generalized aquatic food web shows various marine organisms connected by arrows indicating predator-prey relationships. Top predators like large sharks, smaller sharks, and marlin are at the top, followed by predators such as tuna, squid, lancet fish, and mackerel. Filterers like lantern fish, amphipods, and ocean sunfish occupy the next level, with zooplankton such as shrimp, copepods, and pteropods below them. At the base, phytoplankton including dinoflagellates and diatoms prov

Illustration comparing a complex ocean food web, with interconnected feeding relationships among marine animals and plankton, to a simple linear food chain showing energy flow from sun to producers, primary consumers, and up to top predators.

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