Question

What percentage of a lower tropic levels energy flows to the next higher tropic level

Answer 1

In ecological systems, the percentage of energy that flows from one trophic level to the next higher trophic level is typically around 10%. This concept is known as the 10% rule or the 10% energy transfer efficiency.

Answer 2

Approximately 10 percent of energy from one trophic level is typically transferred to the next higher level in an ecosystem. The remaining energy is used for life processes and lost as heat, limiting the number of sustainable trophic levels.

Step-by-step explanation:

Only about 10 percent of the energy at one trophic level is transferred to the next higher trophic level, as depicted by ecological or energy pyramids. The remaining 90 percent is utilized by organisms for metabolic processes such as growth, repair, and maintenance, and much of it is lost as heat due to the second law of thermodynamics, which leads to increased entropy in energy conversions within an ecosystem.

In a specific example like the Silver Springs ecosystem, the trophic level transfer efficiency (TLTE) can vary slightly, with one calculation showing about 14.8 percent transfer from primary producers to primary consumers. However, on average, the efficiency across trophic levels is generally around 10 percent, which underlines why most ecosystems rarely sustain more than four trophic levels. Energy inefficiency at each level leads to a customary reduction in organism numbers and biomass the higher one moves up the trophic levels.