Question

The following is a food chain that ends with human: plants → bee → human

1. Explain how plants provide food for bees.
2. How do bees provide food for humans?
3. How does this food chain differ from a usual food chain involving human such as: plants → goat → human?
4. Do you think that the food chain given in this question can really be regarded as a food chain? Explain your answer.

Answer 1

1. Plants provide nectar and pollen to bees, which serve as their food.
2. Bees produce honey, which is consumed by humans as food.
3. In the food chain Plants → Bee → Human, humans obtain honey from bees without eating the bees. In the usual food chain Plants → Goat → Human, humans obtain food by eating the goat.
4. No. It cannot be regarded as a true food chain because humans do not feed on bees; they only consume the honey produced by bees. A true food chain involves one organism being eaten by the next organism.