Trophic pyramid

Trophic pyramid

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Trophic pyramid

Trophic pyramid which is also known as a pyramid of energy or ecological pyramid is a representation made of graphs that shows how energy flows in each level of the trophic in the ecosystem. A pyramid showing energy indicates the amount of energy that is retained as new biomass in each level of the trophic. There are also other types of pyramid i.e. pyramid indicating biomass which shows amount of biomass found in an organism and the pyramid that shows numbers which represents population of each type of organisms at the various levels of the trophic. A trophic level is the category of organisms in an ecosystem that are in the identical height in food chain. Trophic level’s examples are primary producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers and the apex predators.

Primary producers

They are also known as autotrophs which means they use inorganic compounds to produce biomass. In other words, these are organisms which undertakes the process of photosynthesis i.e. algae and plants which uses the sun’s energy to form glucose by the use of carbon dioxide. The glucose can then be kept as energy by the plants and oxygen is freed in the atmosphere. In earthly ecosystem nearly all of the production in the primary level is from the plants, for example flowering plants, ferns and trees while in the marine ecosystem seaweed and algae are crucial in primary production.

Some primary producers found in the deep-sea produce energy by oxidizing inorganic compounds of chemical nature as an alternative of photosynthesis; organisms of these caliber are known as chemoautotrophs.

Primary consumers

These are herbivores, which means they are used to eating and processing the algae and the plants. There are two types of herbivore: Browsers, for example goats and deers whose food is majorly made of the tree twigs and leaves and the Grazers, for example, rabbits, sheeps and cows whose food is majorly the grass. They may also feed on other types of materials in plant, for example, monkeys, bats and birds consume fruits while arachnids, insects and bats also feed on nectars: termites as well as beetles feeds on wood. Zooplankton are the primary consumers in the marine ecosystem. Phytoplankton are crustaceans that eats off algae.

Secondary consumers

They are at the third position in the trophic level, they are made up of a mixture of omnivores and carnivores, that gets some portion of their nutrients in the herbivores’ tissues. Examples are the carnivorous plants and the animals which eats insectivores, which are the herbivorous insects.

They are majorly tiny animals, weasels, snakes, fish and birds, even though some apex predators e.g. eagles and lions may also feed on herbivores and also can be present in the second level of the trophic in an ecosystem. All species that feeds on zooplankton are known as secondary consumers, in the marine ecosystem and this comprises of wide variety animals e.g. jellyfish and tiny fish i.e. the sardines and crustaceans e.g. lobsters, crabs and whales which usually filter feeds together with basking sharks.

Tertiary consumers

These are animals that obtain their nutrition by feeding on the secondary consumers and the primary consumers. They feed on other carnivores but can also be fed on. They are carnivores in nature and can also be omnivore, which are organisms that eats meat and plants. An example of such an animal is the Owl, which even though they eat mice some other herbivores, they can also feed on stoats which are secondary consumers, but these owls can also be preyed on by the hawks and the eagles hence disqualifies them from being apex predators.

Apex predators

These are the top most in the food chain and are not predated naturally by any organism. Examples of these animals includes: Lions which are the large cats, wolves, cheetahs, eagles and jaguars. In the marine ecosystem, examples of apex predators include tuna, sharks, dolphins and killer whales. The apex predators have specific characteristics make them structured hunters e.g. their agility and speed, teeth and claws which are very sharp and occasionally work in groups which make their job quite easier and increasing their probability of success. Not all of them are brutal hunters. For example, whales are the largest filter feeders only consumes planktons and some small fish but because they don’t have predators which are natural, then in that environment they become the apex predators.

These level of the food chain plays a crucial role in the ecosystem because they manage the population of the preceding level hence putting it at an equilibrium. If in any case, they are done away with completely from the ecosystem, some organisms e.g. the browsing or grazing herbivores can be excess in number leading to decrease in plants in the habitat due to the intense pressure of grazing and browsing. Decreased plants resources will lead to decreased plant-dependent organisms e.g. insects, and will affect all trophic levels and can lead to the collapse of the ecosystem.