Final answer:
Charles Elton concluded that food chains are interconnected into food webs, which more accurately represent the complex trophic interactions in ecosystems.
Step-by-step explanation:
Charles Elton recognized that food chains are not isolated units but are hooked together into food webs. This concept accounts for the multiple trophic interactions between species within an ecosystem. Unlike the linear progression of energy portrayed in a food chain, food webs illustrate the complex and interconnected relationships that organisms have with each other and their environment, showing that organisms often consume and are consumed by more than one species and that they can feed at multiple trophic levels. Therefore, food webs more accurately represent the energy flow and the dynamic structure of ecosystems.