Food Web

Explore how complex connections between predators and prey help form a healthy, balanced food web.

An osprey flies over the water with a needlefish in its talons.
An osprey carries away a needlefish it snatched from Knapps Narrows in Tilghman Island, Maryland. (Will Parson/Chesapeake Bay Program)

All of the interconnected and overlapping predator-prey relationships in an ecosystem—including producers, consumers and decomposers—make up a food web.

Infographic shows the different species that can act as producers, consumers and decomposers in a simplified example of a Chesapeake Bay food web.
A food web is made up of producers, consumers and decomposers. In the Bay, species like phytoplankton and underwater grasses act as producers. Species like zooplankton, sea nettles and fish act as consumers. Species like clams and tubeworms feed on detritus, or waste.
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The infographic shows a cross-section of an underwater habitat, from above the water's surface to below its muddy bottom. The infographic features drawings of different plants and animals, with text labels that indicate the role the plant or animal plays within this habitat's food web. In an underwater area where sunlight is shining, phytoplankton (floating in the water) and underwater grasses (growing out of the sediment) are labeled as producers. Swimming elsewhere, zooplankton are labeled as primary consumers; an alewife, bay anchovy, and sea nettle are labeled as secondary consumers; and a striped bass is labeled as a tertiary consumer. On the habitat's bottom, oysters are labeled as filter feeders and bacteria are labeled as decomposers. Buried in the mud, a hard clam, soft shell clam and glassy tubeworm are labeled as detritus feeders.