Final answer:
Ecologists use diagrams such as food chains and food webs to study ecological relationships and understand how energy and matter move through ecosystems.
Step-by-step explanation:
Ecologists use diagrams such as food chains and food webs to study ecological relationships. These diagrams represent feeding relationships and show how energy and matter move through ecosystems. By analyzing the interactions between organisms in the diagrams, ecologists can understand how energy is transferred, how different species depend on each other for survival, and how disturbances can impact the entire ecosystem. For example, if a scientist constructs a flow chart to depict the interactions among species in an estuary, she is creating a conceptual model that represents the ecosystem.