Life Sciences - Grade 10 - Lesson 16

A food pyramid represent the relative amount of energy in trophic levels. Which of the following correctly shows a food pyramid?

• A
• B
• C
• D

In this energy pyramid, which organisms have the most energy available?

• Producers
• Carnivores
• Herbivores
• Top Predator

In an ecological pyramid, which type of organism always has the least amount of energy available?

• Producers
• Herbivores
• Carnivores
• Top Predator

How much of the energy in each level of a ecological pyramid gets lost as heat or used by the organism so that it cannot be passed on to the next trophic level?

• 80%
• 90%
• 10%
• 20%

If there are 100 Kcal of energy available in the producers, how much energy would be available in the herbivores?

• 10 Kcal
• 1 Kcal
• 100 Kcal
• 1000 Kcal

The figure below is an ecological pyramid. It could only be a pyramid of biomass and not a pyramid of numbers. Answer true or false.

• true

• false

Answer explanation

Most pyramids of biomass are pyramid shape but not all. Biomass sampling is a snapshot in time. This means that if phytoplankton reproduce quickly and zooplankton have been eaten by their predators then the biomass of phytoplankton could be more than the biomass of the zooplankton and the biomass of the predators would be greater than for the zooplankton at the time of sampling.