DAT High Yield Biology 2025 – 400 Free Practice Questions to Pass the Exam

The best term to describe a linear sequence showing what organisms consume others is "food chain." A food chain illustrates the pathway of energy transfer through various organisms in an ecosystem, represented in a straightforward and sequential manner. It typically starts with a primary producer, such as plants that capture energy from the sun, and then moves up to primary consumers (herbivores) and secondary consumers (carnivores), showcasing the direct feeding relationships in a simplified form.

While a food web also describes feeding relationships, it does so in a more complex, interconnected manner, illustrating multiple pathways of energy flow among various organisms. An energy pyramid represents the distribution of energy among trophic levels but does not explicitly show the linear consumption flow. An ecological graph might illustrate various ecological relationships, trends, or data but does not specifically denote the feeding sequence. Thus, the food chain is the most accurate term for a linear sequence of consumption among organisms.