Suppose a plant is eaten by a mouse, the mouse is consumed by a snake, and the snake is in turn consumed by a hawk. What could be assumed about the level of available organic matter in the mouse versus the plant?(1 point)

Question

Responses

They both have the same amount of organic matter.
They both have the same amount of organic matter.

Organic matter does not transfer between the plant and the mouse.
Organic matter does not transfer between the plant and the mouse.

There will be less organic matter available.
There will be less organic matter available.

There will be more organic matter available.

Answer 1

In this food chain scenario, the available organic matter will generally decrease as you move up the trophic levels. The plant (producer) contains a certain amount of organic matter derived from photosynthesis. When the mouse (primary consumer) eats the plant, not all of the plant's organic matter is converted to mouse biomass due to energy loss through metabolism, respiration, and other factors. Consequently, the mouse will have less organic matter than the plant. This trend continues up the chain; the snake (secondary consumer) will have even less organic matter than the mouse, and the hawk (tertiary consumer) will have less than the snake.

Therefore, the correct assumption is:

There will be less organic matter available.