MG-Biology

Transfer of energy

Hi all,

You must understand that the transfer of energy is not very efficient. There are many levels of transfers from the energy derived from the sun till it reaches the top of the food chain.

You must consider first from the source of the energy, the sun. How much energy is captured from the sun by the producers and how much is converted to food (take note energy is converted in terms of glucose in plants) The way energy is transferred itself is not efficient. Only 1% of light energy is converted to glucose that will be available to the next trophic level.

Between each trophic levels, there are many ways in which energy can be lost (go and find out) and therefore the energy transfer is around 10-20% max after each trophic level.

It does not matter about the biomass of the organism, because the energy content in that mass cannot be assimilated by the next trophic level (imagine the amount of storage of glucose in consumers). Therefore, the max trophic level of a food chain can be seen.

MG

posted by MG-Biology @ 11:02 AM