Why energy decreases in a food chain and what would happen to ecosystem without producers in the food chain?
Energy decreases in a food chain due to inefficiencies in energy transfer and metabolic processes. This phenomenon is known as the 10% rule, where only around 10% of the energy available at one trophic level is transferred to the next trophic level. The remaining energy is lost as heat during metabolism, used for growth and reproduction, or excreted as waste. As a result, the energy available to higher trophic levels progressively decreases, leading to a pyramid-like structure of energy in a food chain.
For example, if 100 units of energy are available to primary producers, only around 10 units of energy will be passed on to primary consumers, and further, only around 1 unit of energy will reach secondary consumers, and so on.
Now, let's explore what would happen to an ecosystem without producers in the food chain:
If producers were absent from an ecosystem, the consequences would be severe and could lead to the collapse of the entire food chain and ecosystem. Here's why:
In summary, producers are the foundation of the food chain and ecosystem as they provide the initial source of energy. Without producers, the energy flow would be disrupted, and the entire ecosystem would suffer from a lack of resources, leading to a decline in population, loss of biodiversity, and potential collapse of the ecosystem.
Energy decreases as it moves up trophic levels because energy is lost as metabolic heat when the organisms from one trophic level are consumed by organisms from the next level. Trophic level transfer efficiency (TLTE) measures the amount of energy that is transferred between trophic levels. Biomass shrinks with each trophic level. That is because between 80% and 90% of an organism's energy, or biomass, is lost as heat or waste. A predator consumes only the remaining biomass. Marine food webs are usually longer than terrestrial food webs. At each step up the food chain, only 10 percent of the energy is passed on to the next level, while approximately 90 percent of the energy is lost as heat. The different feeding positions in a food chain or web are called trophic levels. Generally, there are no more than four trophic levels because energy and biomass decrease from lower to higher levels. When organisms are consumed in the foodchain, only energy stored as tissue is transferred. Therefore, at each stage of the food chain, less energy and biomass is transferred between organisms than at the previous trophic level. Without plants and animals decomposers will die and there will be no life on earth. So, if there were no producers, the food chain would not initiate and all the living species on earth would die. Producers are the autotrophs which act as a source of food and energy for the consumers. If there were no produces, the consumers would die due to hunger and thus the other dependent trophic level will not survive and a time will come when they will be no life on earth. However, although an ecosystem can exist without consumers, no ecosystem can survive without producers and decomposers. The simplest food chain is producer —>• decomposer. The producer captures the energy that drives the system, and the decomposer breaks down wastes into molecules that the producer can use. In an ecosystem without primary consumers, there would be no food for higher consumers and they would experience a population crash. As producers are the first level in a food system, they provide energy to the entire system. They do not rely on other organisms for food but instead get energy from the sun, which they convert into useful chemical energy. This conversion supports other organisms in the system thereby sustaining the food chain.
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Biological Science
- Biota
- Eukaryota
- Fungi