In a food pyramid, there is typically less biomass at the top (i.e., there are very few individual tertiary consumers, whereas there are numerous individual producers). In three to five sentences, explain this phenomenon, citing evidence relating to energy flow and how plants support ecosystems.

Question

put it smaller

Answer 1

In a food pyramid, there are fewer top-level consumers because energy is lost at each trophic level as it moves up the food chain. Plants, as primary producers, support ecosystems by converting sunlight into energy through photosynthesis. This energy is then passed on to herbivores, which are consumed by carnivores. Because energy is lost with each transfer, there is less biomass at higher trophic levels. This results in fewer individual tertiary consumers compared to producers.