Tag: energy flow and loss

For aquatic organisms the quality (chemical composition, PH) of water is very important. The salt concentration (measured as salinity in parts per thousand), is less than 5 parts per thousand in inland waters, 30-35 parts per thousand in the sea and more than 100 parts per thousand in some hyper saline lagoons. Many fresh water animals cannot live for long in sea water and vice versa because of the osmotic problems they would face. 

Raymond Lindeman gave the famous 10 % law. According to this law, at each trophic level, only 10% of the energy of the subsequent trophic levels is transmitted. So, the amount of energy goes on decreasing at each tropic level.

The flow of energy in the ecosystem is unidirectional. The energy enters the plants (from the sun) through photosynthesis during the making of food. This energy is then passed on to the successive trophic levels in a food chain is only 10% and rest energy get lost as heat during transfer and life process. 

Trees are autotrophs or producers in an ecosystem and trap solar energy. The solar energy is converted into chemical energy, which is stored in seeds, fruits and other storage organs. Thus, producers like trees are the source of chemical energy for all the heterotrophic organisms. All the heterotrophs either directly or indirectly depend on the food, synthesized by producers like trees. These organisms directly cannot use solar energy.

Only 10 percent of the gross productivity of producer is entrapped by herbivores for their body-building. Herbivores are eaten by primary carnivores. Only 10 percent of the herbivore productivity is utilised by carnivores. Higher carnivores are similarly able to retain only 10 percent of energy present in primary carnivores. This is called as 10 percent law by Lindeman.

A food chain is series of plants/animals which are interrelated in the form of organism being eaten as food by the other. It consists of producers, consumers and decomposers. The energy enters in an ecosystem through producers. Plants are producers which convert solar energy into chemical energy through photosynthesis. From producers, the energy is then transferred to the herbivores and carnivores. The animals eating plants are called as primary consumers or herbivores and animals eating primary consumers are called as secondary consumers or carnivores. Decomposers are those which decay the waster organic matter and release energy back in the environment.