Assume that a mature female vegetarian consumed 2 pounds of food daily for one year. At the end of this one year, she weighed ½ pound more than she weighed at the beginning of that year.
a. What was the percentage of biomass conversion at this trophic level? (hint: first, think about how much total food this woman consumed in one year, and then determine what percentage of this total consumption was converted into her net weight gain for that year).
b. If she had indeed gained 10%, how much more would she weigh now?
To answer these questions, we need to break down the information provided and use some basic calculations. Let's go step by step:
a. What was the percentage of biomass conversion at this trophic level?
First, we need to calculate the total amount of food consumed by the woman in one year. We are given that she consumed 2 pounds of food daily, and there are 365 days in a year:
Total food consumed in one year = 2 pounds/day * 365 days = 730 pounds
Next, we need to calculate the net weight gain of the woman. We are told that she weighed ½ pound more at the end of the year compared to the beginning:
Net weight gain = ½ pound
To find the percentage of biomass conversion, we need to divide the net weight gain by the total food consumed and multiply by 100:
Percentage of biomass conversion = (Net weight gain / Total food consumed) * 100
= (0.5 pound / 730 pounds) * 100
≈ 0.0685% or 0.07%
Therefore, the percentage of biomass conversion at this trophic level is approximately 0.07%.
b. If she had indeed gained 10%, how much more would she weigh now?
To find out how much more she would weigh if she had gained 10%, we can calculate it using the initial weight and the percentage gain.
Initial weight = Net weight gain / (Percentage gain / 100)
= 0.5 pound / (10 / 100)
= 0.5 pound / 0.1
= 5 pounds
Therefore, if she had gained 10%, she would weigh 5 pounds more now.