Question

Calculate the amount of energy that will be available to big fish in the following food chain if 10000J of energy is available to small algae from the sun.
Small algaeFish big fish

Answer 1

the amount of energy available to big fish is 10 J

given: 10000J of energy is available to small algae from sun

to find: Amount of energy available to big fish

solution:

the food chain in the following process will be :

small algae -> zooplankton -> fish -> big fish

According to Lindemann's 10 percent law ,

only 10 percent of energy is available to another level out of total energy available at any tropic level.

so here transfer of energy take place as :

small algae = 10000 J

energy available for zooplankton = 10% of 10000J

= 1000J

now energy available for small fish will be 10 % of 1000J = 100J

Out of 1J energy available to the fish, 10% is transferred to the next trophic level i.e. big fish. 10% of 100J is 10J.

Hence, 10J of energy will be available to big fish if 10,000J of energy is available to small algae from the sun.

SPJ3