Food Chain (1920)

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    OED has 1927 for "food chain."
    Both the TIMES OF LONDON and a JSTOR journal have the same article in 1920.  A later JSTOR article cites "Bullen, _Journ. Mar. Biol. Assoc._, 9, 1912, pg. 394," which is not on JSTOR and I'll have to check out.


(TIMES OF LONDON)
British Association Cardiff Meeting Opened., Hidden Secrets Of The Sea. (News) (From Our Special Correspondent.).
      The Times Wednesday, Aug 25, 1920; pg. 14; Issue 42498; col A
   Article:  | Page  |   PDF 1 page portrait   (10604 words)

(JSTOR database)
Oceanography and the Sea-Fisheries (in The British Association for the Advancement of Science)
William A. Herdman
The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 11, No. 4. (Oct., 1920), pp. 289-296.
Pg. 295:  Each such fish has its "food-chain" or series of alternative chains, leading back from the food of man to the invertebrates upon which it preys and then to the food of these, and so down to the smallest and simplest organisms in the sea, and each such chain must have all its links fully worked out as to seasonal and quantitative occurrence back to the Diatom and Flagellates which depend upon physical conditions and take us beyond the range of biology--but not beyond that of oceanography.