Will the impact of removing all the organisms in a trophic level be different for different trophic levels? Can the organisms of any trophic level be removed without causing any damage to the ecosystem?

Removing the complete trophic level organisms will have a different impact on different trophic levels.

(i) If we remove producers (first trophic level organisms), it will affect herbivores as they will lack the food to consume. They will be starved and eventually died. This will affect all the organisms of the next trophic level thereby, disturbing carnivores also.

(ii) Instead, if we remove herbivores completely, carnivores will be starved and died, but the previous trophic level organisms that are producers will flourish and occupy complete earth in the absence of herbivores and carnivores.

(iii) If only carnivores are removed, the herbivores will increase in population. It will overgraze the producers which can cause desertification of the land. 

Conclusion:

The organisms of any of the trophic levels cannot be removed completely, as it will definitely cause an impact on the ecosystem. It will cause disturbance in the food web and create ecological imbalance.

The sequence of living organisms in a community in which one organism consumes other organisms to transfer food energy is called a food chain.

The simple food chain operating in  grassland is:

$Plants\left(Producer\right)\to Deer\left(Herbivore\right)\to Lion\left(Carnivore\right)$

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Updated on: 06-Jan-2023

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