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Within an ecosystem, the _____ is always greater than the _____. view available hint(s) within an ecosystem, the _____ is always greater than the _____. number of producers; number of primary consumers energy used by primary consumers; energy used by secondary consumers biomass of producers; biomass of primary consumers biomass of secondary consumers; biomass of producers

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Answer:

Within an ecosystem, the energy used by primary consumers is always greater than the energy used by secondary consumers.

Step-by-step explanation:

Ecosystems are composed of living organisms that share their environment and are in conjunction interacting as a system.

The energy used by the species in an ecosystem comes from the Sun, which is used by the producers in the process of photosynthesis. Producers are plants, bacteria and algae - they produce their food by transforming solar energy into chemical energy.

The energy used by producers then passes to primary consumers when these feast on the first. Primary consumers are organisms that feed on producers only.

The energy keeps on flowing when the primary consumers are eaten by secondary consumers, which are mostly carnivorous and omnivorous animals. Then, tertiary consumers feed on secondary consumers.

Because of the fact that only 10% of the energy in one trophic level is ever passed to the next, the firsts to acquire it possess much more energy than the lasts. For this specific factor, the energy used by primary consumers will always be greater than the energy used by secondary consumers.

User Sean Kearney
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In an ecosystem the energy used by primary consumers is always greater than the energy used by secondary consumers. In an ecosystems, organisms at the highest trophic levels usually contain less collective biomass than the organisms at lower trophic levels because organisms are inefficient at converting the energy they consume to biomass, but instead most energy is lost in form of heat energy.
User Caprica Six
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