Question

During the transfer of energy across the food chain, only about 10% of available energy is transferred to the next higher trophic level. Where does the rest 90% of the energy go?

Answer 1

The 10% law:

1. The producers are said to have the highest amount of energy in the food chain, as they are the producers of food.
2. Following them the remaining fall in line as in $Producers\to Primary\to Secondary\to Others$
3. Only 10% of the energy is passed on from one level to another in the food chain. That is, only 10% of energy is available for transfer to the higher level out of the energy gained from the previous level.
4. The remaining 90% of the energy is lost in form of heat to the atmosphere, unusable. This heat loss accumulates in the surroundings and is called as community heat.

Hence, during the transfer of energy across the food chain, the 90% of available energy that is not transferred to the next higher trophic level is lost to the surroundings in the form of Community Heat.