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Which statement most accurately describes why food webs provide greater stability to an ecosystem compared to single food chains?
They involve only producers.
They have fewer organisms.
They recycle only energy.
They allow multiple feeding relationships, ensuring balance.
They allow multiple feeding relationships, ensuring balance.
Food webs are interconnected networks of multiple food chains that provide ecosystem stability by offering alternative prey sources for predators. If one organism in a food web declines or goes extinct, other pathways ensure that energy continues to flow through the ecosystem, preventing total collapse.
Food webs are interconnected networks of multiple food chains that provide ecosystem stability by offering alternative prey sources for predators. If one organism in a food web declines or goes extinct, other pathways ensure that energy continues to flow through the ecosystem, preventing total collapse.
The concept of ecosystem stability is central to the Environment (Protection) Act of 1986, which provides the legislative framework for protecting India's diverse ecological niches.
A food chain is a linear sequence of organisms, whereas a food web is a complex network of interrelated food chains.
Biodiversity acts as a buffer in ecosystems; higher diversity leads to more complex food webs and greater resilience against environmental stress.
Trophic levels represent the hierarchical positions in a food chain, starting from producers (autotrophs) to various levels of consumers (heterotrophs).
Option A is incorrect because food webs include producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, and decomposers.
Option B is incorrect because food webs contain more organisms and more complex interactions than a simple, single food chain.
Option C is incorrect because food webs involve the transfer of both energy and nutrients (biogeochemical cycles) through the ecosystem.
The 10% Law, proposed by Raymond Lindeman in 1942, states that only about 10% of energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next.
D is correct тАФ Food webs provide alternative pathways for energy flow, which acts as a safety mechanism ensuring ecosystem stability despite the loss or fluctuation of any single species.
When studying Environment and Ecology for UPSC or SSC, always link food web complexity to 'Keystone Species' concepts, as the removal of a single keystone species can destabilize even the most complex food web.
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