Question

Which statement describes the relationship between the law of conservation of energy and the energy pyramid shown?

1) The amount of available energy decreases as you move up the pyramid because some energy is transferred to the environment as heat.
2) The environment can sustain more organisms as the trophic level increases because more energy conversions have taken place.
3) The number of grasshoppers exceeds the number of rats because their source of energy is the sun and fewer energy conversions have taken place.
4) The population of tertiary consumers is greater than that of the secondary consumers because they occupy the highest trophic level in the energy pyramid.

Answer 1

The amount of available energy decreases as you move up the pyramid because some energy is transferred to the environment as heat. Statement 1.

The law of conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed but can only be transferred or converted from one form to another.

In an energy pyramid, as you move up the trophic levels, energy is lost at each level through metabolic processes, heat production, and other inefficiencies.

This results in less energy being available to organisms at higher trophic levels. The statement reflects the principle of decreasing available energy in an energy pyramid due to energy loss.