⚡ Energy Flow and Trophic Levels
This quiz explores how energy enters ecosystems and moves through food chains. You'll learn about the 10% rule, trophic levels, and why energy pyramids get narrower at higher levels. Discover why there are fewer top predators than herbivores, and how energy is lost as heat at each step. **What you'll learn:** - How producers capture solar energy and transfer it to consumers - The 10% energy transfer rule between trophic levels - Why pyramids of energy, biomass, and numbers have different shapes - How to calculate energy loss in food chains - Why most ecosystems support only a few trophic levels
Questions in this quiz
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- Question 1
Which organisms are responsible for capturing solar energy and converting it into chemical energy that other organisms can use?
- Question 2
In a food chain, approximately 90% of the energy from one trophic level is passed to the next trophic level.
- Question 3
A meadow plant captures 100,000 units of solar energy. According to the 10% energy transfer rule, approximately how much energy will be available to a hawk that eats a bird that eats a grasshopper that eats the plant?
- Question 4
Which of the following best explains why energy pyramids always get narrower as you move from producers to top predators?
- Question 5
A pyramid of numbers always has the same shape as a pyramid of energy.
- Question 6
In a forest ecosystem, there is one oak tree, hundreds of insects feeding on the tree, and several birds eating the insects. Which pyramid would show the broadest base and narrowest top?
- Question 7
A food chain consists of grass → rabbit → fox. If the grass contains 50,000 units of energy, how much energy is available to the fox (using the 10% rule)?
- Question 8
Decomposers obtain energy by eating organisms from any trophic level in a food chain.
- Question 9
Which of the following is a reason why most food chains have only 3–5 trophic levels?
- Question 10
A tertiary consumer in a food chain eats secondary consumers. Which organisms did the secondary consumer originally obtain its energy from?
- Question 11
Heat lost from respiration at one trophic level can be recaptured and used by organisms at the next trophic level.
- Question 12
Which statement best describes the relationship between biomass and energy at each trophic level?
- Question 13
In a pond ecosystem, phytoplankton are eaten by small fish, which are eaten by larger fish, which are eaten by herons. What percentage of the original phytoplankton energy reaches the herons?
- Question 14
Primary consumers always have less total biomass than the producers they feed on.
- Question 15
Why do organisms use energy for respiration at each trophic level?
- Question 16
If a farmer wants to feed the maximum number of people using a fixed amount of land, should they grow crops for people to eat directly, or raise cattle to feed people?
- Question 17
The number of top predators in an ecosystem is directly limited by the amount of energy available from producers.