Topic 3 - Inter-relationships: Energy And Biomass

Question 1

What does a pyramid of biomass show?

Answer 1

Biomass is how much the creatures at each level of a food chain would weigh if you put them all together. Biomass is a store of energy, so a pyramid of biomass shows how much energy there is at each stage of a food chain.

Question 2

Why are pyramids of biomass pretty much always pyramid shaped?

Answer 2

Each time you go up one tropic level, the mass of the organisms goes down. This is because most of the energy is lost and so does not become biomass in the next level up.

Question 3

What happens to the amount of energy as you move up through each stage of a food chain? Why does this happen?

Answer 3

It decreases at each stage of a food chain. This is because energy is used by the organisms to stay alive, and also because heat and waste is lost to the surroundings.