“It is a network of food chains which become inter-connected at various trophic levels so as to form a number of feeding connections amongst the different organisms of a biotic community.”
Food Web is meant for increasing the stability of an ecosystem by providing alternate source of food and allowing the endangered population to grow in size. Normally a food web operates according to taste and food preferences of the organisms at each trophic level.
However, availability of food source and other compulsions are equally important.
Example-> In Sunderbans, the tigers eats fish and crab in the absence of their natural preys.
Some organisms normally operate at more than on trophic level. Thus Human beings are not only herbivores but also carnivores at various levels. Jackals are both carnivores and scavengers. Snake feed on mice (herbivores) as well as frogs (carnivores).
Therefore, the concept of Food Web appears more real ecologically than the concept of a simple Food Chain.
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