Question

Which of the following organism types would probably rank the highest in terms of their expected efficiency of energy transfer between trophic levels?
A. Herbivores mammal
B. Carnivorous mammal
C. Invertebrate herbivore
D. Invertebrate carnivore

Answer 1

Hint:Trophic level, a level in an ecosystem's food chain or nutritional chain. According to Lindman's rule for 10% energy transfer. Organisms at lowest trophic level will have maximum energy and those at highest trophic level will have lowest energy.

Complete step by step answer:
 Based on their eating habits, organisms in a chain are divided into various stages. The producers, or green plants, are found on the first and lowest level. A trophic level is a level or a place in an ecological pyramid, a food web, or a food chain. It is inhabited by a collection of species that feed similarly. No primary consumers can be found when there are no producers (like a plant). Trophic levels are significant because of this. They demonstrate the abundance of food and energy in a well-defined ecosystem, the complexity of "who eats what," the interdependence of all living things, etc.
According to a law put forth by Lindeman, only 10% of energy is moved from one trophic level to another, and 90% of that energy is wasted during the processes of transfer, respiration, and digestion. According to the 10 percent law of energy flow, only 10% of the energy that is transferred from one trophic level to another is transferred to the following level. This is because only about 10% of the energy is transferred to the following trophic level. The remaining energy is released as heat energy during respiration, one of several ways it leaves the food chain. Life processes make use of it (eg movement). As herbivore animals are at the lowest trophic level among all the above options so it will have the maximum energy reserve among all.
So, option (A) is correct.

Note: As energy reserve decreases in successive trophic levels, so the one which is at lowest trophic level will have maximum energy. But the opposite law is applicable for toxins, because by the process of biomagnification, toxins are minimum at lowest trophic level. Thus, this is the reason food chains are generally small.