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Grasses are the dominant producers in the prairie ecosystem. Mice eat the grass seeds, snakes eat the mice, and hawks eat the snakes. Hawks are tertiary consumers.

Remember the 10
percent rule.

How many 500
gram hawks can be supported by 250,000,000
grams of producers?

(1 point)
Responses

5,000
5000

50
50

500
500

150,000

1 answer

To determine how many 500 gram hawks can be supported by 250,000,000 grams of producers in the prairie ecosystem, we can use the 10 percent rule.

  1. Identify the amount of energy available at each trophic level:

    • Producers (grasses): 250,000,000 grams
    • Primary consumers (mice): 10% of the producer biomass
    • Secondary consumers (snakes): 10% of the primary consumers
    • Tertiary consumers (hawks): 10% of the secondary consumers

  2. Calculate each level of consumers:

    • Primary consumers (mice): \[ 10% \text{ of } 250,000,000 = 0.10 \times 250,000,000 = 25,000,000 \text{ grams} \]

    • Secondary consumers (snakes): \[ 10% \text{ of } 25,000,000 = 0.10 \times 25,000,000 = 2,500,000 \text{ grams} \]

    • Tertiary consumers (hawks): \[ 10% \text{ of } 2,500,000 = 0.10 \times 2,500,000 = 250,000 \text{ grams} \]

  3. Calculate the number of 500 gram hawks: \[ \text{Number of hawks} = \frac{250,000 \text{ grams}}{500 \text{ grams/hawk}} = 500 \]

Therefore, the number of 500-gram hawks that can be supported by 250,000,000 grams of producers is 500.