Question

(a) Explain the significance of ecological pyramids with the help of an example.
(b) Why are the pyramids referred to as 'upright' or 'inverted'?

Answer 1

Significance of ecological pyramids:

They graphically represent the relation between producers and consumers. To calculate energy, content, biomass or numbers, the organism of that trophic level needs to be calculated.
A trophic level represents only a functional level, not a species. A given species may occupy more than one trophic level in the same ecosystem at the same time. The ecological pyramids provide an overall idea of the trophic levels occupied by an organism in an ecosystem.

For example, A sparrow is a primary consumer when it eats seeds, fruits but a secondary consumer when it eats insects or worms.

(b) Upright pyramids: When the energy at a lower trophic level is always more than at a higher trophic level the pyramid of energy is always upright.