Which of the following represents a food chain in a forest?

Concept

A food chain is a directional feeding sequence: each organism is eaten by the next, so energy moves from a producer to consumers at successive trophic levels.

In a forest, a valid chain therefore begins with green plants, continues to a plant-eating animal, and then to a predator that feeds on that animal.

Application

1. Plants make food by photosynthesis and form the producer level.

2. Deer eat plant matter and therefore occupy the primary-consumer level.

3. Lions can prey on deer and occupy the next consumer level.

Cross-check and contrast

• The sequence “Plants, frog, snake” skips the prey that frogs obtain from plants indirectly; frogs are principally insect-eaters rather than direct plant-eaters.

• The sequence “Plants, weeds, fish” places two producer groups consecutively and does not state a feeding link from weeds to fish.

• The multiple-valid-sequences claim does not follow because only one listed biological sequence has the required adjacent feeding links.

• The no-valid-sequence claim does not follow because one listed biological sequence has the required feeding links.

Thus, the forest food chain is plants → deer → lion.