Food Chains & Ecosystems

Producers, consumers, decomposers — energy flows through life

A food chain shows how energy flows from one organism to another through eating. Producers (plants) capture energy from sunlight through photosynthesis. Primary consumers (herbivores) eat plants. Secondary consumers (carnivores) eat herbivores. Decomposers (bacteria, fungi) break down dead organisms and return nutrients to the soil. At each step, about 90% of energy is lost as heat — only 10% passes to the next level. This is why there are always far more plants than rabbits, and more rabbits than foxes. Removing any link from the chain disrupts the whole ecosystem.