Final answer:
The majority of energy transferred between trophic levels in a food chain is lost as heat(option 1), according to the second law of thermodynamics, with only about 10% being stored in the next level's biomass and used for further transfer.
Step-by-step explanation:
When energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next in a food chain, the majority of the energy is lost as heat. This is a result of the second law of thermodynamics which states that there is a tendency toward disorder or entropy in any system, and this manifests in biological systems as heat.
During the transfer of energy, only about 10% of the energy from organisms at one trophic level is stored in the biomass at the next higher level and is available for further transfer. The rest of the energy is utilized for metabolic processes, and is dissipated as heat to the environment.
Due to this loss of energy as heat and the energy utilized for metabolism, growth, and repair, there is a significant decline in the energy that is available from one level of the food chain to the next. This is why food chains rarely consist of more than four trophic levels, as there typically isn't enough energy remaining to support additional levels beyond this.
Therefore, the correct option for what happens to the majority of energy when it is transferred from one trophic level to the next in a food chain is: 1) It is lost as heat.