Freshwater pond food chain and food web
The freshwater pond ecosystemThe living organisms in a particular area, together with the non-living components of the environment. is finely balanced because of the food chainA sequence (usually shown as a diagram) of feeding relationships between organisms, showing which organisms eat what and the movement of energy through trophic levels. and the food webA network of food chains, showing how they all link together..
The food chain
A food chain shows how each living thing gets food. In a food chain, energy and nutrients are passed from one organismLiving entity, eg animals, plants or microorganisms. to the next. The producerPlants that begin food chains by making energy from carbon dioxide and water. provides the basic source of food which other organisms, the consumerAn organism that obtains its energy by eating other organisms., then feed on.
The food web
This includes all of the connections between producers and consumers in an ecosystem. The food web shows how interconnected all of the different organisms are.