In a food pyramid, there is typically less biomass at the top (i.e., there are very few individual tertiary consumers, whereas there are numerous individual producers). In three to five sentences, explain this phenomenon, citing evidence relating to energy flow and how plants support ecosystems.(4 points) WRITE LIKE A 7th GRADER
3 answers
In a food pyramid, there are fewer tertiary consumers at the top because energy gets lost as it goes up the pyramid. Plants make up the bottom of the food pyramid by using sunlight to make their own food through photosynthesis. This means they have the most energy to start with. When animals eat the plants, they only get some of that energy, so there is less energy left for animals that eat those animals. This is why there are more producers than consumers in a food pyramid.
Shorter
There are fewer animals at the top of the food pyramid because energy is lost as it moves up. Plants support ecosystems by starting with lots of energy from the sun. When animals eat plants, they only get some of that energy, so there are more plants than animals in the pyramid.