Question

In the energy pyramid, if a primary producer is consumed by a first-level consumer, and that first-level consumer is consumed by a second-level consumer and the second-level consumer is consumed by a third-level consumer, how much energy is stored by the third-level consumer from the primary producer?

Answer 1

.01% of the primary producer's energy is stored by the third-level consumer; only 10% f the energy passes from one level to the next

Answer 2

There is a 10 per cent law for the flow of energy from the producers to the consumers.

If we assume that 100 per cent energy is available at the tropic level of producers then only 10 per cent energy is transferred from the producers to the primary consumers.

Then 10 percent of the total energy that the primary consumers has is transferred into secondary consumers.

Then from 10 per cent of the total energy the secondary consumers has is transferred to another level.

So, only a very small proportion of the energy reaches the higher level food chain.