Question

As you will learn in a later chapter (Chapter 25), a trophic pyramid depicts the transfer of energy between different organisms (i.e., plants, herbivores, and carnivores). Based on the first and second laws of thermodynamics, which of the following is likely true of a trophic pyramid?

A. Plants harness more energy from the sun compared to an herbivore eating plants.
B. Plants harness more energy from the sun compared to an herbivore eating plants, and an herbivore gains more energy from eating plants compared to a carnivore eating meat.
C. A carnivore gains more energy from eating meat compared to an herbivore eating plants.
D. An herbivore gains more energy from eating plants compared to a carnivore eating meat.
E. An herbivore gains more energy from eating plants compared to the amount plants harness from the sun.

Answer 1

B.Plants harness more energy from the sun compared to an herbivore eating plants, and an herbivore gains more energy from eating plants compared to a carnivore eating meat.

Step-by-step explanation:

Answer 2

The correct answer is: B.

Step-by-step explanation:

• Energy flows from one organism to another through the Food Chain.
• A Food Chain can be defined as a hierarchy formed by different organisms, like producers, primary consumers, secondary consumers, tertiary consumers, scavengers and decomposers.
• The different energy levels represented by each of the organisms that form a food chain is called the Trophic level.
• The organism of one trophic level functions as the source of food for the organism of the next trophic level.
• The flow of energy is unidirectional, that is, from the producers to the decomposers.
• The Sun is the initial energy source.
• The light energy is utilised by the producer (plant) to produce its food. Of the total (100%) energy that a plant obtains, it utilises 90% of the energy for the purpose of metabolism and the rest 10% of the energy is transmitted to the primary consumer (herbivore) who consume the plants. Again, the herbivore utilises 90% of the energy it obtained from the plant for its metabolism and transmits remaining 10% of the energy to the secondary consumer (carnivore) who consume the herbivore.
• This is known as the 10% Law of Energy Flow, which means that along a food chain only 10% of energy is transmitted from one trophic level to the next trophic level.