Question

Which of the following is not recycled once it passes from producer to consumer to decomposer

Answer 1

Answer: Energy is not recycled once it passes from producer to consumer to decomposer.

The energy flow in an ecosystem in the form of food from one organism to other is food chain. It comprises mainly of three types of organisms producers or autotrophs, consumers or heterotrophs and decomposers. The energy flow in food chain or food web is unidirectional from plants which are the primary producers to primary consumers or herbivores, then to secondary consumers or carnivores and finally to the decomposers. On its unidirectional flow the energy is lost in different form such as heat loss, decay, respiration etc. The energy passed from one level to another is not the same and gets lost in the process so when the energy is received from one tropic level to another it is always less than that received by the previous tropic level.