Question

An ecological pyramid is sometimes used to show both the flow of matter and energy in an ecosystem. The pyramid narrows as matter and energy flow from the bottom to the top. Draw a conclusion about what this pyramid tells you about the energy in this ecosystem.

Answer 1

Since the pyramid narrows from bottom to top, we can conclude that the amount of energy keeps on decreasing as we move to a higher trophic level.

Explanation:

Ecological pyramid are graphical representation of data that shows the number of organisms,amount of energy and amount of biomass at each trophic level in a food chain.

Food chain is a sequence of organism who are related  to each other by the process of Eating and being Eaten up.

The base of the ecological pyramid represents the producer or the first trophic level while the apex of the pyramid represents the  cosumers at higher levels of food chain; other consumer trophic levels are in middle.

There are three types of Ecological pyramids:

• Pyramid of number: This shows the number of organisms of a population present at each trophic level.
• Pyramid of energy: This shows the amount of energy available at each trophic level and clearly depicts the  energy loss at successive trophic level.
• Pyramid of biomass:  This pyramid represents the total dry weight of living beings present at each trophic level.

The pyramid of Energy is always an upright pyramid because amount of energy transferred from one trophic to next keeps on decreasing as the energy is lost in form of heat and is also used up by the organism at a given trophic level and only the remaining is part to the next.