Pyramids Of Biomass Flashcards
The bar along the bottom of the biomass pyramid will always represent the?
The producer (i.e. a plant)
The second to bottom bar on a biomass pyramid will always represent the?
The primary consumer (the animal that eats the plant)
The 3rd from bottom bar on the biomass pyramid will always represent the?
The secondary consumer (the animal that eats the primary consumer) and so on up the food chain
Why is there less energy & biomass each time you move up a trophic level?
Light energy from the sun is stored in the cells of plants and algae, it work its way through the food chain as animals eat them on each other.
Most all the energy is eventually lost to the surroundings as heat. For mammals and birds this is especially true, their bodies must be kept at a constant temperature, normally higher than their surroundings.
Some of the material which makes of plants and animals is an edible e.g. bone, so it doesn’t pass to the next stage of the food chain.
Material and energy also lost from the food chain in the organisms waste materials
How do living things decay once they have died?
Plants take elements like carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen from the soil or the air. They turn these elements into the complex compounds (carbohydrates, proteins and fats)
These elements return to the environment and waste products produced by the organisms or when the organisms die. These materials decay because they are digested by microorganisms – that’s all the elements get put back into soil.
