What is ecological pyramids?Discuss the different types?
Answers
Explanation:
- An ecological pyramid is a graphical representation of the relationship between different organisms in an ecosystem.
- Each of the bars that make up the pyramid represents a different trophic level, and their order, which is based on who eats whom, represents the flow of energy.
1. Pyramid of Number:
- It depicts the number of individual organisms at different trophic levels of food chain. This pyramid was advanced by Charles Elton (1927), who pointed out the great difference in the number of the organisms involved in each step of the food chain.
- Successive links of trophic structure decrease rapidly in number until there are very few carnivores at the top.
2. Pyramid of Biomass:
- The biomass of the members of the food chain present at any one time forms the pyramid of the biomass.
- Pyramid of biomass indicates decrease of biomass in each tropical level from base to apex.
3. Pyramid of Energy:
- When production is considered in terms of energy, the pyramid indicates not only the amount of energy flow at each level, but more important, the actual role the various organisms play in the transfer of energy.
- An energy pyramid illustrates how much energy is needed as it flows upwards to support the next trophic level.
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Ecological pyramid is a graphical representation in the form of a pyramid showing the feeding relationship of groups of organisms. ... Ecological pyramid also shows the flow of energy or biomass at each trophic level in a particular ecosystem.
The three different types of ecological pyramids are ---
1. Pyramids of energy
2. pyramid of biomass
3. pyramid of numbers.
Pyramid of numbers
This shows the number of organisms in each trophic level without any consideration for their size. This type of pyramid can be convenient, as counting is often a simple task and can be done over the years to observe the changes in a particular ecosystem. However, some types of organisms are difficult to count, especially when it comes to some juvenile forms. Unit: number of organisms.
Pyramid of biomass
This indicates the total mass of organisms at each trophic level. Usually, this type of pyramid is largest at the bottom and gets smaller going up, but exceptions do exist. The biomass of one trophic level is calculated by multiplying the number of individuals in the trophic level by the average mass of one individual in a particular area. This type of ecological pyramid solves some problems of the pyramid of numbers, as it shows a more accurate representation of the amount of energy contained in each trophic level, but it has its own limitations. For example, the time of year when the data are gathered is very important, since different species have different breeding seasons. Also, since it’s usually impossible to measure the mass of every single organism, only a sample is taken, possibly leading to inaccuracies. Unit: g m-2 or Kg m-2.
pyramid of energy
The pyramid of energy looks at the total amount of energy present at each trophic level, as well as the loss of energy between trophic levels. Since this type of representation takes into account the fact that the majority of the energy present at one trophic level will not be available for the next one, it is more accurate than the other two pyramids. This idea is based on Lindeman’s Ten Percent Law, which states that only about 10% of the energy in a trophic level will go towards creating biomass. In other words, only about 10% of the energy will go into making tissue, such as stems, leaves, muscles, etc. in the next trophic level. The rest is used in respiration, hunting, and other activities, or is lost to the surroundings as heat. What’s interesting, however, is that toxins are passed up the pyramid very efficiently, which means that as we go up the ecological pyramid, the amount of harmful chemicals is more and more concentrated in the organisms’ bodies. This is what we call biomagnification.
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