food chain

English

Wikipedia

Noun

food chain (plural food chains)

1. The feeding relationships between species in a biotic community.
2. (idiomatic) a hierarchy

   With my promotion this month I will continue my steady journey to the top of the food chain.

Usage notes

Because the concept of the food chain implies a feeding hierarchy proceeding upwards to a top predator, modern ecologists usually prefer the term food web, since that term allows for a more complicated system of interactions.

Related terms

• food web
• trophic level

Translations

a feeding relationship between species

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 食物鏈 (cmn), 食物链 (cmn) (shíwù liàn)

• Czech: potravní řetězec (cs) m
• Dutch: voedselketen m and f
• Finnish: ravintoketju (fi)
• French: chaîne alimentaire (fr) f
• German: Nahrungskette (de) f

• Greek: τροφική αλυσίδα (el) f (trofikí alysída) (trofikí alysída)
• Hungarian: tápláléklánc (hu)
• Italian: catena alimentare (it) f
• Japanese: 食物連鎖 (ja) (しょくもつれんさ, shokumotsu rensa)
• Russian: пищевая цепь (ru) (piščevája cep') f , трофическая цепь (ru) (trofíčeskaja cep') f 
• Turkish: besin zinciri (tr)

idiomatic: a hierarchy

• Finnish: ravintoketju (fi)
• Hungarian: tápláléklánc (hu)

• Japanese: 食物連鎖 (shokumotsu-rensa)