Ecological Pyramids

Question 1

Energy loss

Answer 1

a lot of the energy is reflected back into the atmosphere, energy is also transmitted through the plant and the plant only absorbs the red and blue from the light
Approximately 10% of energy is lost through each trophic level: energy is lost due to respiration and also waste such as faeces and urination and also energy is needed for movement

Question 2

Food webs only show qualitative information

Answer 2

pyramids of numbers, biomass and energy provide us with quantitative energy

Question 3

Pyramids of numbers

Answer 3

• no account for size only the number of organisms
• Inverted pyramid: the producer is big enough to support a large population of small primary consumers
• Inverted pyramid: the secondary consumer are organism such as a parasite, where many small organism can feed off one primary consumer

Question 4

Pyramids of Biomass

Answer 4

• Mass of organism (pretty much always a perfect pyramid)
• Is a measure of the dry mass (mass minus the water content)
• Displays how there needs to be more producers to feed the consumers
• May change due to seasonal changes (eg. When leaves fall off a tree during winter)

Question 5

Pyramids of energy

Answer 5

• Most reliable pyramid
• Measure the energy of the organism in kilojoules per year
• Net primary productivity= energy minus respiration
• Demonstrates the amount of energy at each trophic level
Is a better representation of how there needs to be a big enough amount of producer to suffice the population of top carnivores as energy is lost