3.18 Pyramids of Biomass

Question 1

What do pyramids of biomass show?

Answer 1

The biomass of each trophic level in a food chain

Question 2

What does each bar on a pyramid of biomass show?

Answer 2

The mass of all living material at that stage of the food chain.

Question 3

What happens to most energy as you go up a trophic level in a pyramid of biomass?

Answer 3

It is lost or used

Question 4

3 main reasons why only 10% of the biomass gets passed on:

Answer 4

1. Organisms don’t normally eat every part.
2. Even the bits that they do eat might not be absorbed as they can’t break them down properly (get egested as faeces).
3. Most of the nutrients that animals absorb are used to release energy through respiration (released through carbon dioxide).

Question 5

How do you calculate the efficiency of biomass transfer?

Answer 5

biomass available to the next level/biomass that was available to the previous level X100