Ecosystems are characterized by interconnected structure and functions. A study published in the open-access journal PLOS ...

Food chains and food webs and/or food networks describe the feeding relationships between species in a biotic community. In other words, they show the transfer of material and energy from one ...

Most studies of food webs look at how predators at the top of the food chain control prey and plant populations below them. But a new Cornell study, published March 26 in Science, is one of the ...

A food chain might start with a plant, eaten by caterpillars, which are eaten by birds, which are eaten by foxes. The energy that started in the plants is passed through each part of the food chain.

The researchers found that the food chain length varied from year to year, and took a significant hit when the environment changed – for example, after the 1997-98 El Niño season, and after ...

Some 300,000 marine species are known to science—about 15 percent of all the species ... and menhaden. This level of the food chain also includes larger animals, such as octopuses (which ...

Laura is Popular Science’s news editor, overseeing coverage of a wide variety of subjects. Laura is particularly fascinated by all things aquatic, paleontology, nanotechnology, and exploring how ...