Energy in Biomass

Question 1

What is biomass?

Answer 1

mass of living materials

Question 2

What does a pyramid of biomass represent?

Answer 2

the mass of organisms at each trophic level

Question 3

How does a food chain start?

Answer 3

Plants start the process of energy transfer in living organisms by absorbing sunlight and transferring their light energy to chemical energy during photosynthesis which passes through a food chain

Question 4

What does a food chain consist of?

Answer 4

Producer → Primary consumer→ Secondary consumer → Tertiary consumer

Question 5

What is the producer?

Answer 5

• produces food
• most likely to be green plant

Question 6

What is a herbivore?

Answer 6

• an animal that eats a plant
• primary consumer

Question 7

What is a carnivore?

Answer 7

• an animal which consumes an animal
• secondary/ tertiary consumer

Question 8

What is an omnivore?

Answer 8

• an organism which can eat both plants and animals
• more info needed to determine position on food chain

Question 9

What is a trophic level?

Answer 9

an energy level in a food chain or web

Question 10

How does the amount of biomass differ at each stage of the food chain?

Answer 10

it decreases at each stage

Question 11

Why is a small percentage of sunlight absorbed by green plants?

Answer 11

• not all the light is correct wavelength
• some light is reflected
• some light will pass straight through

Question 12

How is energy lost in food chains?

Answer 12

• not all food eaten can be digested so energy stored in faeces or lost via excretion (urea)
• food is used for respiration which releases energy for movement and other llving process but most energy is transferred to the surroundings
• some energy is lost as heat to keep a constant body temperature

Question 13

What is the conversion rate from plants to herbivores?

Answer 13

5-10%

Question 14

What is the conversion rate from herbivores to carnivores?

Answer 14

10-20%

Question 15

What happens to the energy if the organism is not consumed?

Answer 15

• organism die and decompose
• decomposers releases energy for respiration into surroundings

Question 16

Energy loss in herbivore

Answer 16

large loss of undigested food in faeces

Question 17

Energy loss in carnivore

Answer 17

little loss of undigested food in faeces

Question 18

Energy loss of cold-blooded animals

Answer 18

little loss of energy to environment because little energy is needed to warm animal

Question 19

Energy loss in warm-blooded animals

Answer 19

large loss of energy to environmen because energy is used to keep animal warm