Which term best describes the transfer of energy through a community as organisms feed on one another, piece by piece?

Which term best describes the transfer of energy through a community as organisms feed on one another, piece by piece?

• A. Niche
• B. Food Chain
• C. Habitat
• D. Organism

Answer: (B)

Energy moves through a community via feeding relationships. A food chain is the simple sequence that shows who eats whom, tracing the flow of energy from producers up through herbivores to predators in successive links. The energy transfer described—piece by piece as one organism eats another—fits this idea exactly. Niche refers to an organism’s role, habitat is where it lives, and an organism is a single individual, not the network of feeding relationships. So the term that best describes this energy transfer is the food chain.

Energy moves through a community via feeding relationships. A food chain is the simple sequence that shows who eats whom, tracing the flow of energy from producers up through herbivores to predators in successive links. The energy transfer described—piece by piece as one organism eats another—fits this idea exactly. Niche refers to an organism’s role, habitat is where it lives, and an organism is a single individual, not the network of feeding relationships. So the term that best describes this energy transfer is the food chain.