In a food chain only around 10 per cent of the energy is passed on to the next level. The rest of the energy passes out of the food chain in a number of ways:
1. via heat energy
2. is used for life processes (for example movement)
3. uneaten parts that pass to decomposers
4. is excreted and passes to decomposers.
As less energy is transferred at each level of the food chain, the number of organisms at each level gets smaller.
10. How does mass and energy flow are related to ecological pyramid?
Answer:
An ecological pyramid (also trophic pyramid or energy pyramid) is a graphical representation designed to show the biomass or biomass productivity at each trophic level in a given ecosystem.
Biomass is the amount of living or organic matter present in an organism. Biomass pyramids show how much biomass is present in the organisms at each trophic level, while productivity pyramids show the production or turnover in …show more content…
It is a graphical representation of biomass (total amount of living or organic matter in an ecosystem) present in unit area in different tropic levels. Typical units for a biomass pyramid could be grams per meter2, or calories per meter2.
The pyramid of biomass may be 'inverted'. For example, in a pond ecosystem, the standing crop of phytoplankton, the major producers, at any given point will be lower than the mass of the heterotrophs, such as fish and insects. This is explained as the phytoplankton reproduce very quickly, but have much shorter individual lives.
One problem with biomass pyramids is that they can make a trophic level look like it contains more energy than it actually does. For example, all birds have beaks and skeletons, which despite taking up mass are not eaten by the next trophic level. In a pyramid of biomass the skeletons and beaks would still be quantified even though they do not contribute to the overall flow of …show more content…
Some of the materials needed are renewable resources, such as agricultural and forestry products, while others are nonrenewable, such as minerals. The USGS reported in Materials Flow and Sustainability (1998) that the number of renewable resources is decreasing; meanwhile there is an increasing demand for non-renewable resources. The use of construction materials such as stone, sand, and gravel has soared. The large-scale exploitation of minerals began in the Industrial Revolution in England and has grown rapidly ever since. Today’s economy is largely based on fossil fuels, minerals and oil. The value increases because of the large demand, but the supply is decreasing. This has resulted in more efforts to drill and search other territories. The environment is being abused and this depletion of resources is one way of showing the effects. Mining still pollutes the environment, only on a larger