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8. Why does a food chain generally have no more than five trophic levels?

A. There is a loss of energy at each trophic level.
B.
There is no way to determine the upper trophic levels.
C. Many organisms have multiple food sources.
D. The loss of biodiversity has limited the variety of organisms.

1 Answer

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Final answer:

A food chain generally has no more than five trophic levels due to the loss of energy at each trophic level.


Step-by-step explanation:

A food chain generally has no more than five trophic levels due to the loss of energy at each trophic level. As energy flows through an ecosystem, some of it is lost as heat or used by organisms for their own metabolic processes, such as growth and reproduction. This means that as you move up the trophic levels in a food chain, there is less energy available to support higher-level consumers, limiting the number of trophic levels that can be sustained. For example, in a simple food chain with plants, herbivores, carnivores, and top predators, the top predators receive the least amount of energy.


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