Trophic Level

{
  "id": "MLC-T-ENV-028794",
  "term": "Trophic Level",
  "field": "Environment",
  "definition": "1. A functional classification of taxa within a community that is based on feeding relationships (e.g., aquatic and terrestrial plants make up the first trophic level, and herbivores make up the second).\n\n2. A description of community structure based on the relationship between the production, consumption, and decomposition of energy (food) by organisms. Primary producers such as algae, herbivores such as deer, and carnivores such as wolves represent three different trophic levels.\n\n3. Each step along a food chain; an organism's feeding level.\n\n4. This term refers to the position of a species (or in some cases, types of species with similar feeding habitats) within a food chain or food web. For example, in a simplified terrestrial (land-based) ecosystem, plants, which produce their own food, are at the lowest trophic level. Above them in the second trophic level, are herbivores such as small rodents, deer, etc. In the third trophic level are carnivores: animals that eat other animals. In scientific terms, an omnivore is an animal that feeds on organisms from different trophic levels, such as a bear which eats fish and berries. In some cases, either due to a lack of complete information or for the sake of simplicity and clarity, instead of specific species, a food web or food chain will have \"generic\" groups, such as \"small insectivorous mammals\" or \"piscivorous (fish-eating) birds\", reported in the different trophic levels.\n\n5. A functional classification of species that is based on feeding relationships (e.g. generally aquatic and terrestrial green plants comprise the first trophic level, and herbivores comprise the second.)\n\n6. \"Group of organisms united by obtaining their energy from the same part of the food web of a biological community.\" - Orians, 1995",
  "subject": "Water",
  "references": [
    "Waste and Cleanup Risk Assessment Glossary",
    "Watershed Protection Glossary",
    "Chesapeake Bay Glossary",
    "Ecological Risk Assessment Glossary of Terms",
    "Terms of Environment",
    "USGS Toxic Substances Hydrology Program Definitions"
  ],
  "url": "https://mlchart.com/terminology/environment/trophic-level/"
}