Links between Grazing and Detritus Food Chains

Links between Grazing and Detritus Food Chains:

Just as energy enters the detritus food chain from the grazing food chain as leaf litter, or dead organisms, energy can re-enter the grazing food chain from the detritus food chain if organism from the latter are consumed by grazers. Considering the diversity of the detritus community, it is not surprising that many of these serve as prey for carnivores in the grazing food chain.

A common example is robin eating earthworms. In addition, many insects, among them beetles and flies, spend their larval period in the detritus food chain and their adulthood in the grazing food chain.

But through such links through which energy passes from detritus food chain basic into grazing food chain, very little amount of energy is passed in comparison to the amount of energy which flows from grazing food chain to detritus food chain.