The second law of thermodynamics states that during any energy transfer, some energy is lost as unusable heat, increasing the entropy of the system. In an ecosystem, when energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next (e.g., from producers to primary consumers), a significant portion of the energy is lost as heat during metabolic processes. This explains why only about 10% of the energy from one level is typically available to the next higher level, resulting in a decline in energy flow at successive trophic levels.
In an ecosystem, flow of energy declines as it passes from lower to higher trophic level. This is explained by the following :
Asked in MPPSC CS Prelims 2023 · Topic: Ecology (Ecosystem Functions: Productivity, Energy Flow, Trophic Levels)
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