One of the driving forces behind natural selection (evolution) is the competition between predators (hunters) and prey (their food). This applies to plants and animals as well as between carnivores and herbivores. Plants have developed some ingenious ways to protect themselves. Acacia trees limit grazing from giraffes in three ways… Chilli peppers have their heat …
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Series:Ecology
Trophic levels…
I mentioned previously that plants are the first step in nearly all food chains. A food chain or food web describes the flow of energy between the organisms in a habitat. Each step in the food chain represents a different ‘trophic level’ (trophic is a word that refers to nutrition). The first level contains the …
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Trophic Cascade…
The original version of this video has been watched over 44,000,000 times so you may already have seen it. It is worth watching. It shows the subtle effects that altering one aspect of a food chain can have on other parts of the habitat. In this case, it is an entirely positive story about the …
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