Question

“Energy flow in the food chain is always unidirectional.” Justify the statement.

Answer 1

Hint: Raymond Lindeman gave 10 percent law of energy transfer or we can also say Lindemans trophic efficiency rule in food chains. According to this law ten percent energy if transferred from one trophic level to the next successive trophic level.

Complete answer:
For explaining food chain and transfer of energy organisms are divided into different trophic levels. Lindeman explained this by giving 10 percent of energy transfer law. The number of trophic levels in the grazing food is restricted as the transfer of energy follows 10 percent law. According to this law, ten percent of the energy is transferred to each trophic level from the lower trophic level. Ecosystem refers to the interactions of organisms with one another and with their environment in which they occur. Our ecosystem depends upon energy flow. The orderly step by step transfer of energy from one trophic level to another or in other words from producers to decomposers is called energy flow. Only about ten percent of the energy from organic matter is stored as flesh. This justifies that “Energy flow in food chain is always unidirectional.”

Additional Information: Lindeman was the first one to study the trophic efficiencies. Energy flow is always unidirectional and non-cyclic. Some amount of energy is lost at each trophic level either as heat, or used for metabolism, excretion and decomposition. Energy decreases as it moves up because energy is lost as metabolic heat when the organisms from one trophic level are consumed by the organisms from the next trophic level.

Note: An energy pyramid shows the feeding levels of organisms in an ecosystem and gives a visual representation of energy loss at each level.