Those animals that feed on different tropic levels (grizzly bear that eat both berries and salmon )are classified at which trophic level?
1 Answer
Mar 23, 2018
There is no definite answer.
Explanation:
Generally, trophic levels are more used for food chains and not food webs. (BTW you spelt trophic wrongly.)
Using your example of a grizzly bear, salmon are technically not a permanent part of the food web that sustains the ecosystem that grizzly bears live in.
Hence, when talking about trophic levels, one mainly uses them to describe the energy transfer taking place only in one specific food chain.
Animals that feed on different trophic levels are not classified under a specific trophic level. This is due to having multiple roles in one ecosystem (not necessarily all the time) and hence, can be said as existing in multiple trophic levels in different food chains simultaneously.