The producer receives its energy from the sun, which is the ultimate source of energy. Meaning all the energy we use comes from the sun. Like I said earlier, the energy from the corn moves into the mouse. Not all the energy that the corn has is able to be transferred into the mouse, only about 10% of the available energy is transferred to each trophic level. A trophic level is the position an animal occupies in a food chain. And again only about 10% of energy is transferred from the mouse to the owl.
To find 10%, we can multiply the starting number by 10%. We need to change 10% into decimal form, with is 0.10. Say the corn has 2,000 joules of energy. We will multiply 2,000 x 0.10 = 200
A short cut is to move the decimal over one spot to the left. 2,000.0 to 200.00 or 5,500.0 to 550.00
The carrot has 8,800 Kcal of energy. The rabbit would have 880 Kcal of energy, the fox would get 10% of that, which is 88 Kcal of energy and the lion gets 10% of that, 8.8 Kcal of energy.
This information can also be shown in the form of an energy pyramid. The bottom of the pyramid is always the producer. The next layer of the energy pyramid is the primary consumer, the next level is the secondary consumer, then the tertiary consumer. As we go up the pyramid, the energy decreases. Along with the energy decreasing there is also a decrease in the number of animals available at each level. For example there are more producers than primary consumers, more primary consumers than secondary consumers, and more secondary consumers than tertiary consumers.