Usable Energy Decreases with Each Link in a Food Chain or Web

Each trophic level in a food chain or web contains a certain amount of biomass, the dry
weight of all organic matter contained in its organisms. In a food chain or web, chemical energy
stored in biomass is transferred from one trophic level to another.

Trophic Levels
 Used to locate the position or level of an organism during its energy-seeking activities.
 Plants are said to belong to the first trophic level since the chemical energy they both
store and utilize is one step from the original solar energy they trap.
 Refers to the position an organism occupies in the food chain.

Four Major Trophic Levels

 Primary Producers (plants, algae, bacteria)

The producers and the energy available within them occupy the first level of the energy
pyramid. These producers are largely available within them occupy the first level of the energy
pyramid. These producers are largely autotrophs, which are organisms that manufacture their
own food by harnessing energy from non-living sources of energy.

 Primary Consumers (herbivores)

The second level of the energy pyramid is represented by primary consumers, which are
usually herbivores. Herbivores are animals that depend only on plants for their nourishment and
survival. After generating their energy from the sun, plants pass the energy on to the primary
consumers.

 Secondary Consumers (carnivores)

Secondary consumers sit on the third level of the energy pyramid. They are commonly
known as carnivores. Secondary consumers are organisms that depend on the primary
consumers for their nourishment and survival.

 Tertiary Consumers (detritivores)

The last level of the energy pyramid encompasses the tertiary consumers. It is the level of
the secondary carnivores that feed on both the primary and secondary consumers that makes the
energy level of the ecosystem finished at this level.
Cellular Respiration

 Series of chemical reactions that break down glucose to produce ATP, which may be
used as energy to power many reactions throughout the body.
 Transforms the energy stored in foods eaten by an organism into energy that can be used
for metabolic processes that sustain the organism's life.

Food Chain
 A linear network of links in a food web, starting from producer organisms and ending at
apex predator species, detritivores, or decomposer species.
 Sequence of transfers of matter and energy in the form of food from organism to
organism.

Two Basic Types of Food Chain

Grazing Food Chain

 Starts with green plants which are the producers. The producers are grazed by the
herbivores which are further eaten by carnivores.

Detritus Food Chain

 Starts with dead organic matter which is eaten by other animals in the soil. A large
amount of energy flows through the detritus food chain, ultimately the organic matter is
decomposed.
Food Web
It is an important conceptual tool for illustrating the feeding relationships among species
within a community, revealing species interactions and community structure, and understanding
the dynamics of energy transfer in an ecosystem.

 Consists of all the food chains in a single ecosystem.

 Shows the transmission of energy within an ecosystem.
 Represents feeding relationships within a community.
Energy Flow Through an Ecosystem

Pyramid of Energy

An energy pyramid is sometimes referred to as an ecological pyramid or trophic pyramid.

It is a graphical representation of the interactions among different organisms in an ecosystem.
The pyramid is composed of several bars, and each bar has a different trophic level to
represent.

 An energy pyramid’s shape shows how the amount of useful energy that enters each
level, which is chemical energy in the form of food, decreases as it is used by the
organisms in that level.
 The consequence is that even though a lot of energy may be taken in at any level, the
energy that ends up being stored there, which is the food available to the next level, is far
less. Scientists have calculated that an average of 90% of the energy entering each step of
the food chain is "lost" this way.
 The percentage of usable chemical energy transferred as biomass from one trophic level
to the next is called ecological efficiency. It ranges from 2% to 40%, that is, a loss of 60–
98% depending on what types of species and ecosystems are involved, but 10% is typical.
 Reymond Lindeman introduced the 10% energy transfer law, or Lindeman's trophic
efficiency rule, in food chains. According to this rule, 10% of energy is transferred from
one trophic level to the next successive trophic level.
 Assuming 10% ecological efficiency, which has a 90% loss of usable energy at each
trophic transfer, if primary producers in an area manage to capture 10,000 units of energy
from the sun, then only about 1,000 units of chemical energy will be available to support
herbivores, and only about 100 units will be available to support carnivores.
 The more trophic levels there are in a food chain or web, the greater the cumulative loss
of usable chemical energy as it flows through the trophic levels, since the energy is lost
as metabolic heat when the organisms from one trophic level are consumed by organisms
from the next level.
 The large loss in chemical energy between successive trophic levels also explains why
food chains and webs rarely have more than four or five trophic levels. In most cases, too
little chemical energy is left after four or five transfers to support organisms feeding at
these high trophic levels.

Examples of Energy Pyramid

There are countless examples of energy pyramid that can help you better understand the
concept. Here are three common examples:

 An earthworm breaks down dead organic matter in the soil which the plants, sitting
one level up in the pyramid, utilize to manufacture their food along with the light
from the sun during the photosynthesis process. The herbivores in the next level up in
the pyramid, in turn, use the stored energy in the plants by feeding on the plants. The
energy contained in the fecal matter from the herbivores is recycled back into the
system where it is broken down further by the earthworms.
 Mice on the forest floor eat the seeds and fruits of trees, shrubs, and flowers for
energy. The eagle, sitting at the next level up the energy pyramid eats the mice, taking
in the energy they have stored. It is worth noting that adult eagles have no natural
predators. That means they occupy the topmost level of their energy pyramid.

 Grasshoppers eat grass for their energy. The grasshoppers, in turn, give their energy
to frogs in the next level up the pyramid, which feed on them. Snakes in the next level
of the pyramid get their energy from frogs and so on.
Pyramid of Biomass

Biomass means the dry mass of living material at a certain stage in the food chain. The biomass
goes down as you go from one stage to the next, just like the amount of energy.

 A pyramid of biomass is a chart, drawn to scale, showing a link between the biomass
available at each stage in a food chain. The bars become narrower as you reach the top.

 This pyramid begins with the producer, in this case, the plants, which occupy the bottom
level of the pyramid. Producers are followed by primary consumers.

 There are two primary kinds of biomass pyramids, which are the altered biomass pyramid
and the upright biomass pyramid. Virtually all of the world’s ecosystems and biomes are
represented by an upright biomass pyramid.
 In an upright pyramid ecosystem, the total weight of the producers is greater than the
total weight of the consumers. However, the inverted pyramid of biomass is the complete
opposite since the combined weight of the producers is less than the combined weight of
the consumers.

 In a food chain or food web, chemical energy stored in biomass is transferred from one
trophic level to another.
 As energy flows through ecosystems in food chains and webs, there is a decrease in the
amount of high-quality chemical energy available to organisms at each succeeding
feeding level.
 With each transfer, some usable chemical energy is degraded and lost to the environment
as low-quality heat.
  As losses occur at each stage in the food chain, there is gradually less energy available to
each successive trophic level, and the biomass of higher trophic levels is usually smaller
than that of lower levels.

 Biomass also diminishes along food chains due to loss of carbon dioxide and water from
respiration and loss from the food chain of uneaten or undigested parts of organisms,
since only a small proportion of energy in the biomass of organisms in one trophic level
will ever become part of the biomass of organisms in the next trophic level.
 The manner in which the biomass pyramid is represented is based on the law of
thermodynamics, and energy is transferred through the chain from producers to
consumers and converted to biomass.

Examples of a Biomass Pyramid

Keep in mind that we have an inverted biomass pyramid and an upright one. Examples of a
typical biomass pyramid include:
 Mice eat grass seeds. The mice are then eaten by the owl. Grass has the greatest biomass
in this chain. Its biomass, therefore, sits at the bottom of the pyramid. Conversely, the
owl has the lowest biomass in the chain and hence sits on top of the pyramid.
 A caterpillar feeds on an oak tree. A caterpillar is in turn eaten by a blue tit, which is
eaten by a sparrowhawk. The oak tree sits at the bottom of the biomass pyramid as it can
feed dozens of caterpillars thanks to its massive biomass. The sparrowhawk occupies the
highest level of the pyramid.
In the case of an inverted pyramid, the most obvious example is the pond ecosystem. The mass
of phytoplankton, the main producers of the ecosystem, is less than that of the consumers, which
are generally fish and other insects.

Thermodynamics

 Refers to the use of heat as a convenient measure of chemical energy in any reaction.

The First Law of Thermodynamics

 Traditionally, it has been called the law of conservation of energy.

 states that energy can be transformed from one form to another, but it cannot be created
or destroyed. This law suggests that all energy transfers, gains, and losses within a food
web can be accounted for in an energy bucket.
 It states that whenever energy is transformed, some of it must be degraded into a less
useful form.
  In ecosystems, the biggest losses occur as heat.
 It explains why energy transfers are never 100% efficient. In fact, ecological efficiency,
which is the amount of energy transferred from one trophic level to the next, ranges from
5–30%. On average, ecological efficiency is only about 10%.

Heat is lost from the Ecosystem

All of these reactions are exothermic and release thermal energy (heat) as a by-product.

 Living organisms cannot turn this heat into other forms of usable energy.

 This heat energy is released from the organism and is lost from the ecosystem, unlike
nutrients, which are recycled.
 Hence, ecosystems require a continuous influx of energy from an external source such as
the sun.
 Heat resulting from cell respiration makes living organisms warmer.
 It can be useful in making cold-blooded animals more active.
 Birds and mammals increase the rate of heat generation if necessary to maintain constant
body temperatures.
 Heat passes from hotter to cooler bodies since the heat produced in living organisms is all
eventually lost to the abiotic environment.
 Heat may remain in the ecosystem for a while, but ultimately is lost and cannot be
converted into any other form of energy.
 All energy released by respiration for use in cell activities will ultimately be lost from an
ecosystem.

Calculating Energy Efficiency

Useful Energy Output
Efficiency= ×100 %
Energy Input

Example Problem:

 This bullock has eaten 100 kJ of stored energy in the form of

grass, and excreted 63 kJ in the form of feces, urine, and gas.
The energy stored in its body tissues is 4 kJ and 33 kJ has been
used up in respiration.
 Only 4 kJ of the original energy available to the bullock is
available to the next stage, which might be humans. The
efficiency of this energy transfer is:
  Efficiency=4 ÷100 ×100 %=4 %

Additional Information

 Energy flow pyramids explain why the earth can support more people if they eat at lower
trophic levels by consuming grains, vegetables, and fruits directly, rather than passing
such crops through another trophic level and eating grain eaters or herbivores such as
cattle.
 About two-thirds of the world’s people survive primarily by eating wheat, rice, and corn
at the first trophic level, mostly because they cannot afford meat.
 Greatly simplified food web in the Antarctic. Many more participants in the web,
including an array of decomposer and detritus feeder organisms, are not depicted here.