Marine Biology

 Trophic levels

          The different feeding levels in the food chain are called trophic levels. Food chains comprised of many feeding or nourishing levels, and each level is called trophic level. The first trophic level in the food chain is called primary producers, the second trophic level is the primary consumers (herbivores), and the third level is occupied by the primary carnivores. The number of trophic levels in a food chain is always restricted to 3 to 5. Lower the number of trophic levels, higher the transfer of energy to the top level organisms in the food chain. The energy transfer will be very less to the top predator, if the food chain is having more than three levels of trophic tiers.