Question

If each of these food chains start with 10,000 grams of phytoplankton, how much reaches the highest trophic level in each food chain

Answer 1

Energy is transferred from one trophic level in a food chain to another. However, not all the energy available at a trophic level is transferred to the next.

Only about 10% of the energy in the lower trophic level gets to the immediate higher trophic level and the rest is lost as metabolic heat.

Thus, if a food chain starts with 10,000 grams of phytoplankton, the quantity that will get to the highest trophic level would depend on the number of intermediate trophic levels in between the lowest and the highest.

For every step the energy is transferred up the trophic level in the food chain, 90% of it is lost.

More on energy transfer in trophic levels can be found here: brainly.com/question/20135715