Why does food chain have three to four steps?

Open in App

Solution

Dear student,
According to 10% law of energy transfer, only 10% energy of one step is passed to the next level. And rest 90% energy is lost as heat. The loss of energy at each step is so big that a very little usable energy is left after three or four steps to support the next tropic level. So, food chains have 3-4 steps to be energy efficient.
Regards.

Suggest Corrections

Similar questions

Food chains generally consist of only three or four step. Why?

Why does a food chain normally consist of only 4-5 steps?

Q. Why does a food chain consists of a few step only ?

(a) Explain why a food chain usually cannot have more than three or four steps.

(b) Calculate the amount of energy that will be available to big fish in the following food chain, if 10,000 J of energy is available to small algae from the sun :

$S m a l l a l g a e \to Z o o p l a n k t o n \to F i s h \to B i g f i s h$

Q. Short / Long Answer Type Questions :
What is a food chain How does the study of food chains man area or habitat help us Give an example of a four-step food chain operating in a large, lake

Join BYJU'S Learning Program