Question

In a food chain, if 10000 joules of energy is available to the producer,how much energy will be available to the secondary consumer to transfer it to the tertiary consumer?

Answer 1

Transfer of energy in a food chain follows the 10% law that is responsible for the reduction of energy at each trophic level and hence in this way there is flow of energy that takes place in the food chain.

Complete answer:
Food chain is the linear network in which there is Transfer of energy and matter takes place at each trophic level. The lowest level in the food chain is known as primary producers. This level comprises all herbivores or plant eating animals. At this level, the energy is considered to be 100%. According to the 10% law given by Lindeman, it is considered that during the transfer of energy from one trophic level to another trophic level, only 10% of energy gets transferred while the rest 90% is lost as heat to the surroundings. So if 10000 joules of energy is available to the producer then 10% of 10000 will be transferred to primary consumer i.e. 1000 joules. Again to the secondary consumer 10% of 1000 will be transferred i.e. 100 joules.The energy available to the secondary consumer is 100 joules to transfer to the tertiary consumer. The energy to the tertiary consumer is 10 joules.

Additional information:
The 10% law gives us the basic idea about the efficiency of the food chain and also about the cycles in the food chain.
This 10% law was given by Reymond Lindeman in 1942. Hence this law is also known as Lindeman's trophic efficiency law.
The food chain is comprises of

Primary producer(grass)
Primary consumer (cow, horse)
Secondary consumer (tiger, lion)

Note: When the food chain gets interlinked then it forms a food web which comprises 2-3 food chains. Food chain is necessary for ecological balance and also for the flow of energy and nutrients. In the food web, the nutrient's movement is cyclic in nature while energy flow is unidirectional and non- cyclic in nature.