Food chains and food webs
This kingfisher has caught a dragonfly nymph, which had been eating tadpoles, which had been eating algae. That is a food chain. Real animals eat more than one thing, so chains link up into a food web, and a change to one animal ripples through the rest.
By the end of this page you can
- Give a food chain of four organisms from each kind of habitat
- Tell producers, herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and predators apart
- Put a food chain in order and name each trophic level
- Define food web, predator and biological control
- Read a food web and predict what happens when one animal is removed
Goals tick themselves off as you try the activities below.
Photo: Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped, JPEG q70.
A common kingfisher with a dragonfly nymph. Caribbean ponds and rivers have their own kingfisher, the belted kingfisher.
How often it shows up in past papers
Paper 1 counts come from our past-paper bank of CSEC Biology Paper 1s. Paper 2 is not included yet.
Four habitats, four chains
The syllabus asks for a chain of at least four organisms from trees, soil, fresh water and the sea. Every chain starts with a producer. Tap each card.
Six feeding roles on a reef
Every organism in a web has a role. Tap each role to see an example from a Caribbean reef and seagrass bed.
What does it eat?
Tap a role on the list to see its example.
In a web, one animal can sit at more than one level: a crab that eats algae is a primary consumer, and when it eats a dead fish it is feeding higher up.
Build a pond chain
Put this pond food chain in order, from the producer to the top consumer. Drag or tap each card into its slot.
Which one makes its own food?
Seven terms to know cold
Say what each term means before you flip the card. Then give an example from a Caribbean habitat.
Six quick questions, then a real one
Pick an answer to see why it’s right or wrong.
In the chain grass → grasshopper → lizard → hawk, the lizard is the
Which of these is an omnivore?
In a food chain, an arrow points
In a tree food web, snakes eat anoles and anoles eat caterpillars. If the snakes were removed, what would MOST LIKELY happen first?
Biological control means
A food chain always begins with a
exam style · 3 marks
In the food chain seagrass → green turtle → tiger shark, explain what might happen to the seagrass if many tiger sharks were caught by fishermen.
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Practice questions are written by My V.I.P. Academy. They are not official CXC papers.