Who Eats Who?

Food chains show how organisms get the food, energy, and nutrients they need, and how these are transferred from one organism to another. They begin with plants, or producers, which make their own food using sunlight through photosynthesis. Herbivores, like grasshoppers, eat plants to get energy. Carnivores, like owls, eat herbivores (or other animals) for energy, while omnivores, like raccoons, eat both plants and animals. Decomposers, such as fungi and insects like pillbugs, break down dead plants, animals, and waste, recycling nutrients back into the soil to fuel new plant growth. Each part of the food chain, from producers to decomposers, depends on the others to keep the ecosystem balanced and healthy. An example of a simple food chain starts with grass (a producer) → grasshoppers (primary consumers) → mice (secondary consumers) → owls (tertiary consumers) → fungi (decomposers) to restart the cycle.