Question

Assume that producers in an ecosystem have 1,000,000 kilocalories of energy. How much energy is available to primary

Answer 1

Answer:

1. 100,000 Kilocalories

2. Producers

Explanation:

1.

In a food chain, energy is being transferred when one organism in a particular trophic level feeds on another organism in a lower trophic level. The lowest trophic level contains the PRODUCERS, which are organisms that start the food chain. However, as each organism undergo its metabolic activities, most of the available energy (90%) is lost as heat. Only about 10% of energy is available to the organism in the next trophic level. In a nutshell, the higher the organism in the trophic level, the lower the amount of available energy.

In this case where it is assumed that that producers in an ecosystem have 1,000,000 kilocalories of energy, most of this energy (about 90%) will be lost as heat due to metabolic activities carried out by the plant. 10% of the energy contained in the plant will be transferred to Primary consumers in the next trophic level when they feed. Hence, 10/100 × 1,000,000 = 100,000 Kilocalories of energy will be available to primary consumers.

2.

The total biomass of an organism in each trophic level decreases going up. This is due to the lesser energy transferred from one trophic level to the next. As the trophic level increases, lower energy is available to convert into biomass. Hence, the higher the trophic level, the lower the biomass. If this is the case, the PRODUCERS at the first trophic level will contain the greatest biomass which will decrease as the food chain progresses upwards.