The following diagram shows a typical food pyramid:

Question

If 100,000 kJ of energy is available to the producers, how much energy is available to the secondary consumers in this food pyramid?
(1 point)
Responses

10,000 kJ
10,000 kJ
1,000 kJ
1,000 kJ
100 kJ
100 kJ
10 kJ

Answer 1

In a typical food pyramid, energy transfer between trophic levels follows the 10% rule, where approximately 10% of the energy from one level is transferred to the next level up.

If the producers (the base of the pyramid) have 100,000 kJ of energy:

1. Primary consumers (herbivores) receive about 10% of that energy, which is: \(100,000 \text{ kJ} \times 0.10 = 10,000 \text{ kJ}\)

2. Secondary consumers (carnivores that eat herbivores) would then get about 10% of the energy from the primary consumers: \(10,000 \text{ kJ} \times 0.10 = 1,000 \text{ kJ}\)

Therefore, the energy available to the secondary consumers is 1,000 kJ.