Question

Ten percent of energy is transferred from one level to the next level on the energy pyramid. What happens to the other 90% of energy? A. It is stored as fat. B. It is given off as heat. C. It is stored as a protein. D. It is used in reproduction.

Answer 1

The answer is B. I look at it this way: The bottom level of the pyramid contains the producers (the autotrophs), the plants. Next you have the herbivores (primary consumers), essentially. Mice and the like. Then there are the secondary consumers. Snakes. Finally, there are the Tertiary consumers. Hawks. Each level eats the level below it, to put it bluntly, but it cannot keep all of that energy, so there must be some waste. For animals, the waste product of living is heat (you give it off all the time).

Answer 2

B. It is given off as heat.

Step-by-step explanation:

Organisms feed on one another in an ecosystem in order to gain energy needed for their life processes. This feeding pattern is termed FOOD CHAIN. Each organism occupies a position in the food chain depending on the pattern of their feeding behavior. This level is called TROPHIC LEVEL. So, the food chain progresses when one organism in a particular trophic level feeds on another organism in a lower trophic level.

As organisms in each trophic level feeds on another, only about 10% of the energy is available to that organism. This is because majority of the energy (about 90%) has been lost as heat when organisms engage in their metabolic activities. For example, a producer which starts a food chain obtains energy by producing its own food via photosynthesis, it is fed on by a goat in the next trophic level. Only 10% of the total energy is available to the goat because 90% of the energy has been lost via heat when the plant undergoes metabolic activities.