Question

In an ecosystem, a food chain follows the following pattern:

Grass → Insects → Snake → Peacock.

If 2000 J of energy is available at the level of producers in this food chain, how much energy would be available to the peacock?

Answer 1

The given food chain is Grass → Insects → Snake → Peacock. Energy transfer follows the 10% rule: Only 10% of energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next.

Starting with 2000 J of energy at the producer (Grass) level:

• Energy to insects = 10% of 2000 J
  = 200 J
• Energy to snake = 10% of 200 J
  = 20 J
• Energy to peacock = 10% of 20 J
  = 2 J

Therefore, 2 J of energy will be available to the peacock in the given food chain. This shows the progressive loss of energy at each trophic level due to the energy transfer efficiency of about 10% at each step.