Question

A farmer cultivates carrot in the field.(a) Make a possible food chain with four trophic levels that may develop there. (b) what is the relationship between the energy received by the third trophic level and energy stored in the second trophic level?

Answer 1

Answer A:

The food chain can be drawn as follows:

            Carrots

               ↓

              Rabbits

                ↓

             Snakes

                ↓

              Eagles

Answer B:

The animals in the second trophic level are prey to the animal of the third trophic level. The energy which is stored in the rabbits will be received by the snakes of the third trophic level when a snake will consume a rabbit. However, only 10% of the energy will pass from the rabbits to the snakes.

Answer 2

A possible list of four trophic levels that may develop there are carrot plant⟶grasshopper⟶frog⟶eagle.

The relation between energy received by the third trophic level and the energy stored in the second trophic level is that the energy that the third trophic level is 10 percent of the energy stored in the second trophic level.

Explanation:

In the possible list of the trophic levels in a carrot field carrot plant⟶grasshopper⟶frog⟶eagle, carrot plant is the producer. Grasshopper is the primary consumer, frog is the secondary consumer and eagle is tertiary consumer. The energy flow in an ecosystem follows the ten percent law by which each trophic level receives 10 percent of the energy stored in the previous trophic level.

Thus energy keeps on decreasing on moving to successive trophic levels.