B2.4: Food Pryamids

Question 1

What is a pyrimad of numbers?

Answer 1

This shows the number of organisms at each link in the food chain.

• the organisms are plotted as seperate blocks
• the size of each block is related to the number of organisms
• the producer always goes at the base, with each successive link above it

Question 2

What is biomass?

Answer 2

Dry mass of an organism

Question 3

Difficulty with food pyramids?

Answer 3

Many organisms eat a lot of different things, could be at different levels.

Calculating dry mass involves killing and drying animals