the.com/food chain
nature's org chart, except the intern eventually eats the ceo's grandkids.
means a sequence showing who eats whom, from sunlight-catching plants up through the thing with no predators left.
from formalized by ecologist charles elton in 1927, though every toddler who's watched a nature documentary intuits it instantly.
real shapeactually a web, chains oversimplify it
energy lossonly about 10 percent transfers up each level
top predatorsrare because so little energy reaches them
humanstechnically omnivorous apex, minus the actual predators