Question

(ii) Explain the flow of energy through the food chain.

Answer 1

Food chain:

• The food chain presents the sequence of the consumption in an ecosystem, in which sequence one organism consumes another.
• Since the plants or producers do not consume or eat other organisms, they synthesize their food, they are placed at the base of a food chain.

The flow of energy in a food chain:

• There is a unidirectional flow of energy in a food chain.
• This means that the energy flow in a linear and one direction only.
• The energy will flow from a plant to a deer only. The deer will not provide energy to the plant in reverse. Similarly, the deer will not consume a tiger to get the energy.

Ten percent law:

• This states that there is a progressive reduction in the energy available at every trophic level.
• For instance, the deer gets only 10% of the energy available at the producer's level (trophic level1).
• Similarly, the deer will transmit only 10% of the energy that this has received from the plants.