Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
cology
digest
In this issue:
Editorial
1 page: What is Ecology?
2
The Food Chain
3 The Brachyphelma Species
In Focus:
Discovering
Rafflesia in the Philippines
4
Ecological
Movies
5
Must-read
Books about ecology
6
Articles:
Eology
7
Eco-photography
8
WHAT
IS ECOLOGY
THE
FOOD
CHAIN
A food chain is a linear sequence of links in a food
web starting from a trophic species that eats no other
species in the web and ends at a trophic species that is eaten
by no other species in the web. A food chain differs from a
food web, because the complex polyphagous network of
feeding relations are aggregated into trophic species and
the chain only follows linear monophagous pathways. A
common metric used to quantify food web trophic structure is food
chain length. In its simplest form, the length of a chain is the number of
links between a trophic consumer and the base of the web and the mean
chain
length of an entire web is the arithmetic average of the lengths of all
chains
a foodElton,
web.
Food chains were first introduced in a book published in 1927
by in
Charles
which also
introduced the food web concept .
The food chain length is a
continuous variable that
provides a measure of
the passage of energy
and an index of
ecological structure that
increases in value
counting progressively
through the linkages in a
linear fashion from the
lowest to the highest
trophic (feeding) levels.
Food chains are often
used in ecological
modeling (such as a
three species food chain).
They are simplified
abstractions of real food
webs, but complex in
their dynamics and
he Brachyphelma Species
Mexican Red-Leg
Tarantula
Pterinochilus
Murinus
Commonly known as the
Usambara Orange Baboon
Tarantula (OBT) but also
referred to as the Mombassa
Golden Starburst Tarantula,
Mombassa Golden Sunburst
Baboon and the True Starburst.
This is a very attractive species
that will deliver a painful bite if
given the oppurtunity. The
Usambara Orange Baboon is a
beautiful tarantula. For this
reason they have become more
and more popular among
experienced hobbyists. The
Usambara Orange Baboon
Spider, or Pterinochilus sp., is
native to the Usambara region
of Africa, a dry area near Kenya.