What describes a diagram showing producers, consumers, and decomposers connected by feeding relationships?

• A. Food web
• B. Food chain
• C. Nutrient cycle
• D. Energy pyramid

Answer: (A)

Understanding how feeding relationships are connected in an ecosystem. A diagram that includes producers at the base, consumers that eat living organisms, and decomposers that break down waste and dead material shows many interlinked feeding pathways, not just a single line. That interconnected network is what a food web captures, illustrating how energy and matter move through the ecosystem in multiple directions. A food chain would only trace one simple sequence from producer to top consumer and wouldn’t reflect the multiple connections or the role of decomposers. A nutrient cycle focuses on the movement of elements like carbon or nitrogen through air, water, soil, and organisms, not on who eats whom. An energy pyramid depicts how much energy is present at each trophic level, but it doesn’t map out the actual feeding links between specific organisms. So the diagram described is best described as a food web.