What is the difference between the Food Chain and the Food Web?

A food chain will allow you to follow one path in order to find food. For example, a spider may eat a mosquito while the spider will be eaten by another animal in the food chain. This will be eaten by another animal.

Take note that plants are also part of the food chain as there are some animals that would eat only plants. A food web, on the other hand, will show the different reasons why some plants and animals are connected to each other.

For example, there might be one bird that will eat more than one type of animal. In the food web, all of these animals will be drawn. Take note that there are different food chains that are available not only on land but also in water.

The food chain is a linear network of connections in a food web, starting from a producer and ending at predator species. The key difference between food chains and food webs is that the food chain supports a single pathway of the energy stream in an ecosystem.

In contrast, the food web demonstrates many channels of energy flow that are interconnected within an ecosystem. All plants and animals read food to survive, and from this, they derive the energy to do work. The most prominent source of energy for any living organism is the sun.

Photosynthetic organisms, notably green plants, can make use of the energy from the sunlight and convert it into food for them. Foods are delivered by primary producers for the rest of the creatures and organisms which belong to the other levels of the food chain.