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

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 more organic matter available.
There will be more organic matter available.

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

There will be less organic matter available.

Answer 1

The correct response is:

There will be less organic matter available.

This is due to the fact that as energy and organic matter move up the food chain (from plant to mouse to snake to hawk), there is typically a loss of energy at each trophic level (often around 90% loss), which means that less organic matter is available to the next level in the food chain. Thus, the amount of organic matter in the mouse would be less than that in the plant.