Question

In a grassland ecosystem, grass is the producer. The grass is eaten by rabbits. The rabbits are eaten by foxes. And the foxes

koal
are eaten by hawks. If the grass produces 83,721 of energy, how much energy will the apex predator receive? (1 point)
m²yr
O 83.721
O 837.21 kcal
m²yr
kcal
m²yr
O 8,372.1 kcal
m³yr
8.3721
keal
m³yr

Answer 1

Based on the given food chain, the energy flows from the producer (grass) to the primary consumer (rabbits), to the secondary consumer (foxes), and finally to the tertiary consumer (hawks), which is the apex predator.

Each level of the food chain typically follows the 10% rule, where only about 10% of the energy from the previous level is transferred to the next level. Therefore, to calculate the energy received by the apex predator, we need to multiply the energy produced by the grass by the product of the energy transfer efficiency across all levels in the food chain:

83,721 x 0.1 x 0.1 x 0.1 = 837.21 kcal/m²/yr

Therefore, the apex predator (hawks) will receive approximately 837.21 kcal/m²/yr of energy.