The transfer of energy from green plants (the primary producers) through a sequence of organisms in which each eats the one below it in the chain and is eaten by the one above. Thus plants are eaten by herbivores, which are then eaten by carnivores. These may in turn be eaten by different carnivores. The position an organism occupies in a food chain is known as its trophic level. In practice, many animals feed at several different trophic levels, resulting in a more complex set of feeding relationships known as a food web. See bioenergetics; consumer; producer; pyramid of biomass; pyramid of energy; pyramid of numbers; trophic efficiency.