What does the pyramid of energy show?
Why can a numbers pyramid look different then a energy pyramid?
Answers
Answer:
An energy pyramid is a graphical model of energy flow in a community. The different levels represent different groups of organisms that might compose a food chain. An energy pyramid’s shape shows how the amount of useful energy that enters each level — chemical energy in the form of food — decreases as it is used by the organisms in that level.
Explanation:
Energy pyramid depicts flow of energy in the ecosystem: source of all energy in ecosystem is the SUN. Producers are only organisms in ecosystem who can trap the solar energy. So, the base of energy pyramid is always wide.
Now let us see a pyramid of numbers which depicts the number of individual organisms per trophic level: in an orchard producers are some large trees, but the trees will support a large number of consumers, such as insects and birds. A pyramid of numbers in such ecosystem will be inverted as seen in the following illustration:
