As we travel from plankton to polar bear, only about ten percent of the energy in one trophic level gets passed to the next level.
Explanation:
The energy flow in an Ecosystem has to aspects which should be considered:
- Firstly, the energy flows is unidirectional from producers through herbivores to carnivores.
- Secondly the energy flow decreases with successive trophic levels.This is due to the fact that some energy is always lost as heat and is used by the organism at that trophic level.
Lindeman's work suggested that about 90% energy is used up at the trophic level and only ten percent of it is transferred to the next level.
This was later formulated as the Ten percent law.
