How Radiation Affected the Trophic Levels
Ukraine is mainly comprised of a climate that allows for deciduous forests. The energy source for all of the producers in the immediate area surrounding Chernobyl is the energy from the sun. In the food web for a common deciduous forest (as seen to the left) the primary consumers that make up the biome include fungi, varying types of trees, ferns, flowers, nematodes and soil bacteria. The primary consumers or plant eaters are comprised of deer, small rodents and a wide verity of insects. The secondary consumers include foxes and owls that feed mainly on rodent and birds and then there are other small mammals that feed almost entirely on insects. The tertiary consumers otherwise known as the apex predators feed mainly on deer or other medium sized mammals. The detritivores, the animals that break down organic matter, include worms and shrews. The way the radiation affects the biome is that the particles get passed into the cells of the producers and from that point on gets carried up the food chain until all of the biome is contaminated with radiation that can cause death in the smaller animals and create deformities in the next generation of the forest.
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