Final answer:
Food chains follow a single path of energy transfer through an ecosystem, starting with producers and ending with decomposers. Food webs, on the other hand, depict multiple interconnected food chains, providing a more realistic and resilient view of ecosystems. The length of a food chain varies based on the ecosystem, but terrestrial chains are usually shorter than aquatic ones.
Step-by-step explanation:
In an ecosystem, both food chains and food webs illustrate the flow of energy, but they do so in different ways. A food chain follows a single path as energy and nutrients are transferred from one organism to the next, beginning with a producer such as a plant, proceeding through various levels of consumers (herbivores, carnivores), and ultimately ending with decomposers. Food chains are simple and easy to understand but do not accurately represent the complexity of natural ecosystems.
A food web, on the other hand, consists of many interconnected food chains and is a more realistic representation of the consumption relationships in an ecosystem. Food webs show how a single organism can be part of multiple food chains. Consequently, they exhibit a holistic view, acknowledging the diversity of feeding interactions and the resilience they provide to ecosystems.