Advanced Topics
In a nutshell: Food chains and webs show how energy flows through living things in an ecosystem.
## How Do Living Things Get Energy?
All living things need energy to survive. In nature, energy moves from one organism to another through food chains and food webs.
## Food Chains
A food chain shows how each living thing gets food. It usually starts with a plant (producer), which is eaten by an animal (consumer), and then maybe by another animal.
**Example food chain:**
- Grass → Grasshopper → Frog → Snake
## Food Webs
In real life, most animals eat more than one thing. Food webs show how different food chains are connected, making a big, tangled map of who eats whom!
## Why It Matters
If one part of the food web disappears, it can affect every other part.
## Try This!
- Draw a food chain using animals you see in your backyard or park.
- Make a food web by connecting several food chains together.
Examples
- A rabbit eats grass, and then a fox eats the rabbit.
- Birds eat both seeds and insects, linking different food chains together.
Key terms
- Producer
- A plant that makes its own food from sunlight.
- Consumer
- An animal that eats plants or other animals.
- Decomposer
- A living thing that breaks down dead plants and animals.