In a typical food pyramid, energy is transferred between trophic levels, usually following the 10% rule, which states that only about 10% of the energy from one trophic level is available to the next level.
- Producers have 100,000 kJ of energy.
- Primary consumers (herbivores) will receive about 10% of that energy: \[ \text{Energy available to primary consumers} = 100,000 \text{ kJ} \times 0.10 = 10,000 \text{ kJ} \]
- Secondary consumers (carnivores that eat primary consumers) will again receive about 10% of the energy from primary consumers: \[ \text{Energy available to secondary consumers} = 10,000 \text{ kJ} \times 0.10 = 1,000 \text{ kJ} \]
Therefore, the energy available to the secondary consumers is 1,000 kJ.