(a) "In a food chain energy flow is unidirectional." Give two reasons for the given statement. (b) If 10,000…
(a) "In a food chain energy flow is unidirectional." Give two reasons for the given statement.
(b) If 10,000 J energy is available at the producer level, how much energy will be available to the secondary consumers ? Give reason to justify your answer.
Solution
(a) The energy captured by plants does not revert to solar input and the energy which passes to the herbivores does not revert back to autotrophs.
As energy moves progressively through the various trophic levels it is no longer available to the previous level.
The energy available at each trophic level gets diminished progressively due to loss of energy at each level.
(any two)
(b) 100 J
Autotrophs (10000 J) → Primary consumer (1000 J) → secondary consumer (100 J)
/ Only 10% energy of the organic matter of previous trophic level is transferred to next trophic level. /10% law