Desert Food Chain

Organisms inhabit the entire planet, where ever the life promoting basics of food and shelter are available. And each one is connected to what they consume. The transfer of energy, on consumption, from one organism to another defines the food chain in that particular environment. Every consumer automatically accesses the energy from the primary producer. This activity of energy release via consumption is one that goes on every moment, within every inhabitable habitat . The graph drawn to better understand the relationships and the energy release is referred to as a food chain or food web.

The primary source of energy in any food chain is from the sun. Energy enters the food chain from the sun. Though there is a loss of this energy in the form of excreted biomass, there is also a percentage of the energy absorbed by the consumer's body. It is this energy that is transferred to the next level, to form a food pyramid. In any environment, including a desert, most primary producers are autotrophs, who produce food from energy, like plants. There are also a few organisms that get their energy by consuming other organic material called heterotrophs, like birds. Herbivores and heterotrophs consume plants, while carnivores consume other, smaller animals. The food chain comprises all this activity and dependency.

Desert Food Chain

In the desert too, the flow of energy is from autotrophs to carnivores. The primary producers in the case of a desert remain the cacti and other plants that survive the harsh weather conditions and arid surroundings. The predators and prey differ from one desert region to another, but essentially the difference may only be with regards to the population of the organisms and/or the variations in species. The desert food chain comprises a complex network, on account of the uniqueness of the region with regards to surviving organisms and availability of food. The flow of energy from the desert plant varieties like the Desert Milkweed, Jojoba, Desert Willow and Desert Tobacco to the animals that consume them is consistent.

The need to survive the harsh weather conditions is desperate and hence, the consumption of desert plants by animals like the kangaroo rat and other rodents is more than species in other habitats. Species diversification and biological productivity in the desert depend a lot on:

• Duration of daytime.
• Sunlight incline.
• Availability of water.
• Fluctuations in daily temperature.
• Soil chemical content.
• Nutrients accessible.

Lizards, mongoose and snakes make up for most of the secondary consumers in the desert food chain. The natural interdependency between the species helps them to thrive and reproduce. The biologically distinctive arid regions display a food chain that is fueled by plants or the basic producers and subsequently, the herbivores. Flesh eating animals become the tertiary consumers in the desert, just like in any other habitat. This group comprises omnivores and scavengers and even the microorganisms that support decomposition. This last strain in the food chain manage effective recycling of nutrients.

Desert regions, most of them, experience perpetual summer, but least precipitation on account of the location inland. The survival of the basic components of the food chain, the plant varieties, greatly depends on the extent of biological productivity that depends on:

• Distance of the desert from the equator, a factor determines day length.
• Waning and waxing of energy release from the sun.
• Annual precipitation and duration.
• Rate of evaporation and wind-shift.
• Quality of soil and content of organic matter.