Pyramid of biomass. About 40% of the energy is used for respiration and 50% lost as detritus (faeces and urine and death) (90% of total energy wasted) as the animal has to move and generate heat to keep it alive and it has a very inefficient digestive system, so only 10% is used to generate new cells which is taken in by the next consumer; the next organism in the food chain/web only gains 10% of the previous organisms original energy; the energy gained is then further reduced by the same process. This happens until there is no longer enough energy to support another organism.
Eg:
Leaf (10,000 Kj / 10,000,000 j ) (90% loss of energy, 10% useful)
⇒ Lady bird (1,000 Kj / 1,000,000 j ) (90% loss of energy, 10% useful)
⇒ Black bird (100kj / 100,000 j ) (90% loss of energy, 10% useful)
⇒ Kestrel (1 Kj / 1,000 j ) (Not able to support another organism)
Energy in current organism = Previous organisms energy x 0.1
Ways to lessen the loss of biomass and boost food and product yield:
·Limit movement- Less energy lost through respiration- Put organism in a confined space
·Keep it warm- Less energy lost through heat production (respiration)- Provide a form of heat
Intensive farming increases efficiency as more of the food eaten by the organism is used and turned into useful energy as less energy is wasted through detritus and respiration.
Or something like that:/
