Question

Why is the length of a food chain in an ecosystem generally limited to 3-4 trophic levels? Explain with an example.

Answer 1

The length of a food chain is limited to 3-4 trophic levels because at each level, most of the energy is lost as heat, so only about 10% of energy is transferred to the next level. With such energy loss, very little food remains to support further trophic levels. For example, in a grassland food chain: Grass → Grasshopper → Birds → Hawk, energy decreases at each step, limiting the chain length to 4 levels.