A system of interlocking and interdependent of food chains is called a food web. The relationship between predator and prey among different species of a particular ecosystem is represented by a term called “food web”. The food web is influenced by various environmental factors and geography of the region. Some basic things however, remain the same, like autotrophs (which make their own food by the process of photosynthesis), herbivores (that eat autotrophs) and carnivores (that eat both autotrophs and herbivores), in different food webs across different habitats.
The food chain in the rainforests is more likely to a food web. The ecosystem of the rainforests is the most specie rich and complex ecosystem. Therefore, there are hundreds, or perhaps thousands of food chains or food webs that make a large food network. Since the food web of rainforests is the network of many interlinked food chains, so it is difficult to tell that how many total food chains make the network.
However, the food chain can roughly be classified into four levels. These four levels are as follows:
1. Level 1: flowers, fruits, larvae, spiders, leaves, plankton, insects and dead plant and animal matter.
2. Level 2: fishes, kangaroos, birds, bandi coots, frogs. Wallabies, possum, squirrels, chipmunks, voles, bats
3. Level 3: small animals, dunnarts, kookaburras, snakes, quills, owls and platypus, monkeys, lemurs, deer, elk, bats, parrots.
4. Level 4: large carnivores, tigers, leopards, crocodiles, alligators, dingoes, boa constrictors, pythons, Philippine, eagles, black eagles and crowned eagles, feral dogs and cats, jaguars, cougars.
Every species living in the rainforests are interdependent on one another specie, whether directly pr indirectly. The ecological system is so intricate that if one species ceases to exist, the entire food web or particular food chains are disrupted.
By interdependence we mean that each animal in the rainforests depend on another animal for survival. For example, large carnivores eat small carnivores. Birds in the rainforests eat snakes but the reverse is also true. Sometimes the snakes eat the bird. At the very centre of the food web sits the top, or apex, predators. These innermost slots are held eaten by tigers, leopards, big crocodilians, jaguars- the big snake and the largest bird of prey. Even is this apex creature there is never a peace. Sometimes, the big crocodilians and the big snakes kill one another. The eagles need to watch where they land and all, but the biggest of the big cats are defenseless to an attack by a crocodilian or a big snake. Thus, every animal in the rainforest is interdependent on other animals i.e. they are dependent on other animals for food and life whether directly or indirectly.
The food web in the rainforests is sometimes, effected by environmental changes. The insubstantial balance in interdependence is sometimes dislocate and can be permanently damaged or changed. The rainforests cover 7 % of the globe. The health of the environment in the rainforests is critical. It is due to the reason that all the species in the rainforests are interconnected, that is, if one plant or the animal is destroyed, the rest of the species will suffer. Hence there is never truce in the rainforests for any specie.