What type of changes occur in the amount of energy during its transfer from plants to apex consumers? Explain with suitable examples
Answers
The quantity of energy decreases from higher trophic level to lower trophic levels and the lost energy is transmitted from one to another organism which lies in the energy pyramid.
The loss of energy is through ""metabolic heat"" when the organism consumes the organisms at a different trophic level.
This can be explained by the 10 percent rule, it states that in an ecosystem, only 10 percent of energy is transmitted when the energy transmission is from one trophic level to the another level.
This can be explained by an energy pyramid.
As we move from the lower trophic level to the higher trophic level, the energy quantity transferred is decreased.
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1) Plants of the ecosystem store the solar energy in the form of food.
2) Before reaching the decomposers, this energy is passed on from one trophic level to the next.
3) At every trophic level, some amount of energy is used by organism and some amount of energy is lost to the surroundings.
4) Decomposers disappear some amount of energy in the form of heat.
5) However, no part of the energy ever returns to the sun. such energy is referred to as 'one way' transport.
6) Therefore energy is maximum at the base of the pyramid and is least at the apex, e.g. phytoplanktons which form the base of pyramid have 10,000 kcal of energy while humans at Apex have 10 kcal of energy.