Final answer:
Approximately 10% of the energy at one trophic level is transferred to the next in an ecosystem, due to losses from metabolic processes and increased entropy.
Step-by-step explanation:
The student's question is: b.10%. Approximately 10% of the energy from one trophic level is transferred to the next level in a food chain or food web.
for this is that in an ecosystem, energy flows from primary producers through various trophic levels. However, a considerable amount of this energy is lost as metabolic heat during consumption and other metabolic processes. This energy loss is encapsulated in the concept known as the second law of thermodynamics, which leads to increased entropy in the system. Also, some of the energy is lost through excretion of incompletely digested food. Due to this energy loss, typically only about 10% of the energy is passed from one trophic level to the next, limiting the number of trophic levels in an ecosystem. As such, there are rarely more than four trophic levels because the energy available is insufficient to support additional levels.