B1: Pyramids of Biomass and Energy Transfer

Question 1

What happens to the biomass every time you move up a trophic level in a pyramid of biomass?

Answer 1

The biomass and energy reduces.

Question 2

What is a trophic level?

Answer 2

A stage in a food chain.

Question 3

What does each bar on a pyramid of biomass represent?

Answer 3

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

Question 4

What does the bar along the bottom represent?

Answer 4

The producer.

Question 5

What does the second bar represent?

Answer 5

The primary consumer.

Question 6

What does the third bar represent?

Answer 6

The secondary consumer.

Question 7

Why is there less energy and biomass each time you move up a trophic level?

Answer 7

1. Energy from the Sun is source of energy for all life on Earth.
2. Green plants and algae use Sun’s energy for photosynthesis to produce food. The plant also stores energy in the substances that make up the cells of the plant and algae.
3. The stored energy is moved through the food chain as animals eat them and each other.
4. Respiration supplies all living things with energy. Most of this energy is lost to the surrounding as heat.
5. Material and energy is lost through every animal’s waste materials. There are parts of plants and animals that cannot be eaten so it does not pass to the next stage so energy and biomass is lost.
6. Much of the energy is lost at each stage that there is not enough energy to support more organisms after four or five stages.