Food Chains

10/22/2019

Food Chains

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Biomass Pyramid

StemScopes

A biomass pyramid is a chart drawn to scale that shows the biomass at each stage of a food chain. The pyramid below is a generic pyramid showing different trophic levels of organisms in the food chain and the amount they consume and retain from lower trophic level organisms.

Sample Test QUestions

Which of the following organisms is part of the trophic levelwith the greatest amount of stored energy?

a. Vulture
b. Wildebeest
c. Termite
d. Red oat grass

Which of the following statements is true?

a. Heterotrophs produce their own food.
b. Autotrophs take in nutrients from outside themselves.
c. Consumers are heterotrophs.
d. Consumers are autotrophs.

As energy is transferred between trophic levels, only a small fraction of the available energy is transferred. How can this observation be explained, taking into account the law of conservation of energy?

a. Organic systems do not demonstrate the conservation of energy.
b. Organisms, even after death, continue to store energy in organic
molecules.
c. Since biomass increases at higher levels, the concentration of energy is
the same.
d. The unused energy is lost as heat through metabolic processes.

The diagram here is called a trophic pyramid. It shows trophic levels of a grassland habitat. The size of each trophic level represents biomass, with producers representing the largest amount of biomass.

a. The higher levels of the pyramid are smaller due to human
interference with those organisms.
b. Decomposers work more rapidly breaking down animal tissue than
plant tissue.
c. The organisms on the lower level of the pyramid tend to be smaller
in size.
d. The higher levels of the pyramid are smaller due to the inefficiency of
energy transfer.