Interaction Webs reach throughout ecosystems and encumber Trophic Cascades

The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food web. A food chain is a succession of organisms that eat other organisms and will, in turn, be eaten themselves. The trophic level of an organism is the number of steps it is from the start of the chain to the subject’s position. A food web starts at trophic level 1 with primary producers such as plants, then moves to herbivores at level 2, carnivores at level 3 or higher, and typically finish with apex predators at level 4 or 5. The path along the chain can form either a one-way flow or a food web. Ecological communities with higher biodiversity form more complex trophic paths.