Food Chain
Food Web
The source of energy for this food web begins with the sun. The sun then gives off energy to the plants such as the elephant grass or pork bush. These plants then convert the suns rays into food through photosynthesis. Therefore, when an animal is to eat the plants the energy made from photosynthesis is transferred to the organism. A food web is a very delicate balance because if it fluctuates then it is almost ensured that another animal in the web will be affected by it as well. If one of the producers were to drastically drop then the primary consumer’s population would also decrease from the lack of food. This drop in the primary consumers population would cause food to be scarce for the secondary consumers whose diet consists of the primary consumers. The food web would also be affected if the fluctuated the opposite way as well. If a secondary consumer such as the spotted hyena population were to increase then there would be more predators for their prey, primary consumers, such as the wildebeest. The wildebeest population would slowly decrease and that would cause the hyenas to have to find a new diet consisting of a different prey. Some factors that would limit the growth in the population would be drought because it would be difficult for producers to receive nutrients needed for survival causing a food shortage for the rest of the community. Poaching would also limit the population growth because too many animals would be hunted before they have enough time to repopulate the ones that are being killed.
Invasive species
An invasive species is any type of species that are not native to the ecosystem they are now in. Most invasive species are likely to cause harm to the habitat they have now gone into. The fire ant is an example of an invasive species to the tropical grasslands and savannas. It is very harmful to the ecosystem because it is eliminating the local ant and other arthropods native to the area. This could eventually be detrimental to the food web for this biome. Also, a fire ants bite is extremely painful and affect the eyes of any of its victims such as elephants, cheetahs, and leopards.
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