Question

Energy pyramids, which display graphically the relative amounts of energy in each trophic level of an ecosystem, are very similar across a wide range of different ecosystems, but biomass and organism abundance at different trophic levels are more variable between different ecosystems.

a. True
b. False

Answer 1

a. True

Step-by-step explanation:

Energy pyramids are a simple representation of the flow of energy at each trophic level in an ecosystem, based on the well known fact that a lot of energy gets lost between consumers (approximately only around 10% is made into tissues, while 90% is used up and is lost as heat).

While the biomass and abundance of the organisms at a trophic level, even the identity of that organisms (species), is highly dependent on the characteristic of the environment. So very different environments (for example, a dessert and a rain forest) will have also very different species with different biomass and abundance fulfilling the same trophic role.