Question

Distinguish between upright and inverted pyramids.

Answer 1

Sr. No.	Upright pyramid	Inverted pyramid
1.	In an upright pyramid (e.g., a grassland and cropland ecosystem), biomass, the number of organisms, or the amount of energy decreases as one moves to successive higher trophic levels.	In an inverted pyramid, either the number of organisms increases (e.g., a tree ecosystem) or the biomass increases (e.g., a marine ecosystem) at successive trophic levels.
2.	In an upright pyramid, the producers are more in number than the herbivores.	In the inverted pyramid, the number of producers is less, and the number of consumers is more than the number of producers.
3.	The pyramid of energy is always upright.	The pyramid of numbers and the pyramid of biomass can be inverted.
4.	The base bar, which includes producers, is the largest, while the bar at the vertex of the pyramid, which includes top consumers, is the smallest.	The base bar for producers is the smallest, while the vertex bar for top consumers is the largest (widest).