Question

“It is often said that the pyramid of energy is always upright. On the other hand, the pyramid of biomass can be both upright and inverted.” Explain with the help of diagrams.

Answer 1

Pyramid of energy is always upright. A pyramid of energy depicts the energy flow form one trophic level to another trophic level in the food chain. According to 10 percent law, 90% of the energy captured from the previous trophic level is lost as heat to the environment and only 10 percent is made available to the next trophic level. Energy flow is from environmental sunlight to producers, producers to primary consumers, primary consumers to secondary consumers and so on.


Pyramid of biomass is a diagrammatic representation of the amount of organic material measured per unit area. Pyramids of biomass can be upright pyramids or inverted pyramids.
Upright pyramids have larger net weight of producers at the base.These will become food for smaller weight of consumers. Inverted pyramids of biomass at the base have smaller weight of producers supporting larger net weight of consumers.