If producers generate 100% of the energy, what percentage of that energy is left by the time it reaches tertiary consumers?

Question

Responses

10%
10%

100%
100%

1%
1%

0.1%

Answer 1

To determine the percentage of energy that reaches tertiary consumers in an ecological energy pyramid, we can refer to the principle of energy transfer in a food chain or food web. Typically, at each trophic level (from producers to primary consumers to secondary consumers to tertiary consumers), only about 10% of the energy is transferred to the next level. This means:

• Producers generate 100% of the energy.
• Primary consumers receive about 10% of that energy (which is 10% of 100%).
• Secondary consumers receive about 10% of the energy from primary consumers (which is 1% of the original 100%).
• Tertiary consumers receive about 10% of the energy from secondary consumers (which is 0.1% of the original 100%).

Therefore, the percentage of the original energy left by the time it reaches tertiary consumers is 0.1%.