Question

What type of ecological pyramid would be obtained with the following data?
Secondary consumer - 120 g
Primary consumer - 60 g
Primary producer - 10 g

• A. Inverted pyramid of biomass
• B. Pyramid of energy
• C. Upright pyramid of numbers
• D. Upright pyramid of biomass

Answer 1

The correct option is A Inverted pyramid of biomass

The base of each pyramid represents the producers or the first trophic level. The second level is the primary consumer, the third level is secondary consumer and the apex represents the tertiary or top-level consumer.
Since the biomass of a species is expressed in terms of fresh or dry weight. This pyramid is of biomass. Since the primary producer is having the least biomass and the secondary consumer is having the highest biomass the pyramid of biomass formed will be an inverted pyramid of biomass.
Pyramid of energy is always upright and it can never be inverted because when energy flows from one trophic level to the next trophic level, some energy is always lost as heat at each step.
Pyramid of number is always expressed as the number of organisms in successive trophic levels, however, the data given is in dry weight therefore it cannot be a pyramid of number.