Question

Bunnies and coyotes. For just one level of movement on the pyramid (bunnies to coyotes - their preferred food), and the bunny weighed 5 kg, how many kg of "energy" would the coyote actually get by eating it?

Answer 1

The coyote is actually getting 0.5 kg of "energy" by eating 5 kg of bunnies

Answer 2

The coyote is actually getting 0.5 kg of "energy" by eating 5 kg of bunnies.

Step-by-step explanation:

At each trophic level, it occurs an energy transfer from one level to the next, with only 10% being usable in each of them. This assessment is called "The 10% rule". This is, as a general rule, only about 10% of the energy stored as biomass at one trophic level, per unit time, ends up as biomass at the next trophic level, in the same unit of time. According to the 10% rule, to support 1 kg of coyote, 10 kg of the anterior level is needed. To calculate this, we need to multiply the biomass of the coyote by 10 to get the biomass of its anterior level.

If 10 kg of the anterior level (bunnies) are needed to support 1 kg of coyote, we need to calculate how many kgs of a coyote are supported by 5 kg of bunnies.

10 kg of bunnies ------- 1 kg of coyote

5 kg of bunnies --------- X = 0.5 kg of coyote.