trophic level

noun

Ecology.

1. any class of organisms that occupy the same position in a food chain, as primary consumers, secondary consumers, and tertiary consumers.

trophic level

1. Any of the sequential stages in a food chain, occupied by producers at the bottom and in turn by primary, secondary, and tertiary consumers. Decomposers (detritivores) are sometimes considered to occupy their own trophic level.

2. ◆ The rate at which energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next is called the ecological efficiency. Consumers at each level convert an average of only about 10 percent of the chemical energy in their food to their own organic tissue. Since plants can only convert approximately 1 percent of incident sunlight into chemical energy at the lowest trophic level (the bottom of the food chain), the percentage of the energy in incident sunlight that reaches a tertiary consumer is about 0.0001.

Word History and Origins

Origin of trophic level¹

First recorded in 1940–45; trophic ( def. )

Example Sentences

"Because tissue concentrations of heavy metal contaminants also vary based on an individual animal's sex, age class, trophic level and location, among other factors, it is important to first establish baseline values and then continue to monitor cetacean populations for exposure to these toxicants," said Page.

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This is what biologists refer to as the cascade effect, a chain reaction caused by the disruption of one trophic level of the food chain.

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Tucker, M. A. & Rogers, T. L. Examining predator–prey body size, trophic level and body mass across marine and terrestrial mammals.

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“There is a major restriction that controls the flow of primary production to the upper trophic level,” said David Ainley, a researcher specializing in the study of penguins, who works at H.T.

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And after the sharks and other large fish are gone, out of necessity, fishermen simply move down to the next trophic level in the food chain—in this case, the schools of medium-sized fish like jacks and sweetlips that cruise the perimeter of today’s healthiest Philippine reefs.

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