Question

Less than 0.1% of the energy in a food chain generally makes it from the sun to quaternary consumers. Please select the best answer from the choices provided T F

Answer 1

The given statement is true.  

The plants get 100 percent of the energy from the Sun by trapping it and converting it to food. However, the majority of the energy is lost in the process of moving upward in the trophic level that is, about 90 percent is lost, and only 10 percent is further transferred.  

Therefore, the primary consumers attain 10 percent of the energy from feeding on plants, further the secondary consumers obtain 10 percent of the energy from the primary consumers, and lastly the quarternary consumers obtain 10 percent from secondary consumers. Hence, less than 0.1 percent of the energy in a food chain usually makes it from the Sun to the quarternary consumers.  

Answer 2

The given statement is True.

Plants get 100 per cent of the sun's energy for the capture and production of food.

Most of the energy absorbed from the sun is released into the environment (heat loss) and only 10% of it is transferred to another level.

This system remains same for the primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers and finally the quaternary consumer receives only 0.1% of the energy from the sun.