Energy flows through all living things and the environment. Some energy is stored and much is lost into the environment as heat. Food webs, food chains and energy pyramids are used to represent energy flow.
Imagine you’re driving down the road in a car. As you look out the window you notice a stretch of land with plants as far as the eye can see. Grass, flowers, trees, and other plants are visible in every direction. You probably wouldn’t be too shocked or surprised to see this image. But imagine, instead, looking out the window and only seeing animals as far as the eye can see. Snakes, hawks, rabbits, and other animals so thickly packed together that you would have to step over them to take a walk; what would that sound like and smell like?
There’s no place in the world where we can see animals packed together like this. So then, why does our world have so many more plants than animals? One explanation for this that scientists have developed is called the Pyramid of Energy . You know that all living things need energy, from the smallest bacteria to the largest plants or mammals. You may also know that people use food chains and food webs to show how this energy is passed from the sun to producers (plants) and then to consumers (animals, fungi , bacteria, etc.). What you may not know is that every time energy is passed from one living thing to the next,

only a small portion of the energy makes it to that next living thing. Only the tiniest amount of the sun’s energy reaches us here on Earth, only a small amount is used by an apple tree, and then we only get a very small amount of energy from the apple. By the time you get to the end of any food chain, most of the energy that was available at the beginning is no longer available. Scientists came up with the Pyramid of Energy to explain how this works.
The Pyramid of Energy is a model that uses a pyramid shape to show that the energy that consumers (like animals) can use decreases as it travels through organisms . Producers are at the bottom of the pyramid because they are able to transform the sun’s energy into a large amount of plant energy through the process of photosynthesis . Producers are the base of energy for most food chains and food webs, like the basement is for a house.
Primary consumers make up the next level because they rely on plants for their energy. This level of the pyramid is smaller than the producer level because most of the energy used at the producer level is used by producers for their life processes (respiration, photosynthesis, reproduction , etc.) and transformed to heat before they are eaten.
Secondary consumers make up the next level because they rely on primary consumers for most of their energy. This level of the pyramid is smaller than the primary consumer level because most of the energy used at the primary consumer level is used for their life processes (respiration, digestion, reproduction, etc.) and transformed to heat before these animals are eaten.
The highest level can be either tertiary consumers or decomposers . They rely on secondary consumers for most of their energy. This level of the pyramid is smaller than the secondary consumer level because most of the energy used at the secondary consumer level is used for their life processes and transformed to heat before these animals are consumed. It’s possible to have additional levels of consumers, but in most food chains energy runs out by the second or third level.
How much energy is lost from one level to the next? Scientists say that on average 90% of the available energy is used for life processes such as respiration, photosynthesis, and reproduction and transformed to heat energy before an organism is consumed. A molecule called ATP is used to store this energy, and when the energy is taken from ATP, some of the

energy is lost as heat. This means only about 10% of the original energy is left to feed the next level. This 10% is stored in the tissues (leaves, stem, muscles, organs , fat, etc.) of the organism.
Wetlands
Let’s take an example, using the wetlands. The wetlands is a biome found in very moist areas, usually on the banks of rivers, oceans or lakes. Here producers such as phytoplankton (types of plants) are producing
500,000 calories of energy from sunlight each day. If you gathered all of this phytoplankton into one spot, they might fill a space the size of a room.
Since only about 10% of this energy reaches the zooplankton (types of animals), this leaves about 50,000 calories of energy to support the zooplankton each day. If you gathered all of these zooplankton into one spot, they might fill a space the size of a school dumpster. Since only about 10% of this energy reaches the sunfish, this leaves about 5,000 calories of energy to support the sunfish each day. If you gathered all of these sunfish into one spot, they might fill a space the size of a trash can. Since only about 10% of this energy reaches the great blue herons (a type of bird), this leaves about 500 calories of energy to support herons each day. If you gathered all of the herons into one spot, you would have only one! Fortunately, animals don’t just depend on one type of consumer to meet their energy needs. But in essence it takes the energy of a room full of phytoplankton just to support one great blue heron.
This is why we have so much plant life at the bottom of each food chain yet so few consumers at the top of each food chain. So the next time you take a car ride, you’ll know why there’s so many green plants and so few animals.
It’s all about energy!

Remember
1. What are the four major biotic roles in an energy pyramid?
2. If you ate herons in this ecosystem, how many calories would you get per day? Would a human be able to survive (we need about 2000 calories per day)?
3. Why are there so many producers at the bottom of the food chain?
Put it together
4. Why does energy get lost between each level of the energy pyramid?
5. Suppose that you eat one cheeseburger. Where do each of the parts of the cheeseburger come from? And where do each of these parts get energy from?
Think about it
6. Cut out the 3-D energy pyramid that's on page 1 of this section. Using the side that counts the number of calories, you will use a colored pencil to color in a representative area of that section. Start by coloring in the entire bottom section. Calculate the area that you just colored in, then color in
10% of the next highest section. The width and height will both be the square root of the area of the previous section. Continue coloring in 10% of the area of the previous section for all four sections. You can use the worksheet below to help you. After you are done tape the pyramid together and hand it in!
Width of “producers” section = ___ cm
Height of “producers” section = ___ cm
Area of “producers” section = Width * Height = ___ cm * ____ cm = ___ cm2
Colored area of “primary consumers” = “producers” * 10% = ___ cm2 * .1
= ___ cm2
Width = Height = Square root of area = √___ cm2 = ___ cm
Area of “Secondary consumers” = “primary consumers” * 10% = ___ cm2 *
.1 = ___ cm2
Width = Height = Square root of area = √___ cm2 = ___ cm

Area of “Tertiary consumers” = “secondary consumers” * 10% = ___ cm2 *
.1 = ___ cm2
Width = Height = Square root of area = √___ cm2 = ___ cm
Review
7. Define gene frequency.
8. Name three crops that you eat in some form.
9. What is a landfill?
10. What are the four major spheres of the Earth? Name what each one contains.
The above is a food web of a temperate deciduous forest. The arrows show the direction that the energy travels from organism to organism.

1.
From the food web, what does each of the following need in order to survive:
A.
Berries
B.
Mouse
C.
Snake
2.
In this food web, what will happen if there is not enough:
A.
Sunlight?
B.
Oxygen?
C.
Nutrients in the soil?
3.
What does the carrying capacity (the amount of organisms a particular ecosystem can hold) of frogs in this food web depend on?
4.
Make two food chains from this food web!
1.
In this activity, you will be making a food web from organisms that you are familiar with in the temperate deciduous forest of East Illinois! You will need to include:
A.
At least 8 total organisms
B.
At least 2 producers
C.
At least 2 secondary consumers
D.
At least 12 total arrows
2.
Make two food chains from your food web!
All organisms need energy. Energy enters most ecosystems from the sun and flows through the ecosystem by way of food webs. Pyramids of energy show the energy flow. Energy flows from one level to the next when organisms at a higher level eat organisms from a lower one. Humans tend to be at the top of the pyramid.
Primary producers are the base, or bottom level, of a pyramid of energy.
Most primary producers turn light energy into food through photosynthesis.
When a first-level consumer eats a primary producer, that consumer gets energy from the producer. Only 10 percent of the energy in the organisms at one level gets stored as energy in the bodies of the animals that eat them.
Most of the energy is lost as heat or is used up by the body processes of the organism. This rule is called the “10-percent rule.”

Analyze and Conclude
Use this energy pyramid to answer Analyze and Conclude Questions 1–6.
1.
What is the original source of the energy that flows through most ecosystems? What would happen without this source?
2.
If 10 percent of energy moves up to the next level of the ecosystem, what percentage of energy is lost as heat?
3.
Remember that percentages are based on one-hundredths. The value
100% is equal to 100 one-hundredths or 100/100. The value 50% equals
50/100, which can also be written as the decimal 0.50. The value 5% equals 5/100 or 0.05. The value 0.5% equals 0.5/100 or 5/1000 or
0.005. Convert the following percentages into one-hundredths and then into a decimal: 75%, 20%, 0.8%.
4.
Assume there are 1000 units of energy in the producer level of the energy pyramid. How many units of energy are available at each of the three consumer levels? Show your calculations. Hint: First, change the percentages to decimals.
5.
Suppose there are 500 units of energy available at the base of a pyramid of energy. How many units of that energy will the first-level consumers store? How many units will the second-level consumers store?
6.
Why are there usually so few organisms at the top level of a pyramid of energy?
Use this diagram of an antarctic food web to answer Questions 7–9 and Build
Science Skills.

1.
How are the blue whale and Adele penguin alike as consumers?
2.
What effect would a drop in the size of the krill population have on the
Antarctic food web and why?
3.
Adult krill feed on algae found in open water. Their larvae feed on algae found under the sea ice. More and more sea ice is melting. Will melting sea ice affect the killer whale? Explain.
Build Science Skills
Draw a pyramid of energy to show how energy flows through the Antarctic food web. Use the pyramid above as a model. Include five levels of consumers in your pyramid. Place at least one organism at each level.