Tuesday, September 20, 2011
Jessie's Muddiest Point
One of my muddiest points is the energy pyramid. I understand how 90% of the energy gets lost each time, but it sometimes confuses me. For example, on the Ecology Quiz, the question gave us a food chain. (Algae--->Zooplankton--->Herring--->Trout) It asked if the algae gets 500,000 kcal of energy from the sun, how much would be available to the trout? The answer could be either 5,000 kcal, 500 kcal, 50kcal, or 5 kcal. I was confused because if 90% is lost, how could it get to one of those answers? Also, for every energy pyramid, once you get the concept, is it the same thing every time? Thanks!
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don't think about it as losing 90% but as passing on 10% if the Algae has 500,000 kcal of energy then every time you move up the pyramid you just drop a zero. the answer would be 500kcal because the trout is 3 levels higher than the algae so you drop 3 zeros. I hope this helps!
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