What is the efficiency of energy transfer between trophic levels and process of converting food to energy and energy to movement?
The efficiency of biomass transfer is a measure of the proportion of biomass transferred from a lower trophic level to a higher one. Usually around ten per cent of biomass is transferred between trophic levels in a healthy ecosystem and the remaining ninety per cent is used by the organisms during life processes. The level of the food web that has the most energy is the producers, according to the 10% rule. Producers are organisms that make their own food, such as photosynthetic plants, algae and bacteria, or chemosynthetic bacteria.Energy transfer between trophic levels is not very efficient. Only about 10% of the net productivity of one level ends up as net productivity at the next level. Ecological pyramids are visual representations of energy flow, biomass accumulation, and number of individuals at different trophic levels. Energy transfer between trophic levels is limited because the organisms in the trophic level use most of the available energy to grow, repair and reproduce. This takes up about 90% of their available energy, leaving only 10% available to pass onto the next trophic level. Energy is often lost in the form of heat and is not fully available after transfer. The ecological implication of the idea that no energy is transferred 100 % because energy is generally lost in the form of heat and it is not completely available after transfer. The trophic level transfer efficiency (TLTE) is defined as the product of 100 and the quotient of production at the trophic level of interest and the trophic level one position lower. Everytime an organism consumes something, 90% of the energy is lost as heat during respiration, in digestion, etc. Only 10% is involved in building the body tissue. This 10% is passed to the next trophic level and so on. Only about 10% of the energy is transferred from one trophic level to another. The rest is used for life processes of the organism and some is lost as heat. Cellular respiration is the process by which the energy in food is converted into energy that can be used by the body's cells. The stomach and small intestines absorb the glucose and then release it into the bloodstream. Once in the bloodstream, glucose can be used immediately for energy or stored in our bodies, to be used later. However, our bodies need insulin in order to use or store glucose for energy.
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