Q5.16. Imagine a community with a single predator, two herbivores, and five primary producers (8 species total). How many food web links are theoretically possible

12 links are possible.

Explanation:

Food webs are more detailed and dynamic types of food chains. In the food webs, the flow of energy occurs in a multidirectional way since within nature the food chains do not occur in isolation.

In the case of the question above, we can say that it is possible that in a community with 1 predator, 2 herbivores and 5 primary producers, 12 food web links would be generated.

This is because each herbivore would establish a 5 links representing its food through the primary producers, thus, we would have 10 links. In addition, the predator would present 2 lines indicating its consumption of each herbivore, generating two links. In the end, if we add all the links we will have a total of 12 links.