Question:
There is a loss of energy at each step in a food chain.
I was wondering what natural law does that illustrate?
What structure is created by that process?
Replies:
Look up the Ecological Energy Pyramid and the 10 percent rule. This is
what you are after.
Steve Sample
This sounds like a homework problem. I'll give you my answer, and you can
try to explain it. The natural law it illustrates is the second law of
thermodynamics; entropy is created in any natural trnasfer of energy.
Richard E. Barrans Jr.
This illustrates the law of entropy. This law observes that whenever there
is a transfer or transformation of energy some of the energy is transformed
into a form that is less useful (effectively 'lost' although it is not
destroyed - only in a less useful form).
You may be asking about energy pyramids. These are graphs that show the
total energy found at each level of a food chain. The lowest level
(producers) is the widest. With every upward step (first order consumer,
second order consumer...) the pyramid becomes narrower as energy is lost
fromt he system.
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