Use the second law of thermodynamics to explain the flow of energy across different tropic levels in a food chain
Answers
Explanation:
The second law of thermodynamics states that, during the transfer of energy, some energy is always lost as heat; thus, less energy is available at each higher trophic level. Pyramids of organisms may be inverted or diamond-shaped because a large organism, such as a tree, can sustain many smaller organisms.
The second law of thermodynamics states that any spontaneously occurring process will always lead to an escalation in the entropy (S) of the universe. In simple words, the law explains that an isolated system’s entropy will never decrease over time
Energy transfers within food webs are governed by the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The first law relates to quantities of energy. It states that energy can be transformed from one form to another, but it cannot be created or destroyed. This law suggests that all energy transfers, gains, and losses within a food web can be accounted for in an energy budget.
The second law relates to the quality of energy. This law states that whenever energy is transformed, some of must be degraded into a less useful form. In ecosystems, the biggest losses occur as respiration. The second law explains why energy transfers are never 100% efficient.
Because ecological efficiency is so low, each trophic level has a successively smaller energy pool from which it can withdraw energy. This is why food webs have no more than four to five trophic levels. Beyond that, there is not enough energy to sustain higher-order predators.
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