Energy Pyramid

Because organisms use food energy for movement, growth and daily activities, there is only a portion of energy available for the next organism in the food web.

An energy pyramid is a way to show the different levels of stored energy within an ecosystem. As you move up the pyramid, less energy is available.

Approximately 10% of the energy from one level is transferred to the next higher level. In this example, the top-level consumer receives only a small amount of energy that originated in the producer level.

An ecosystem can only support a limited number of trophic feeding levels. There are many more organisms at the producer and first-level consumer levels than at the higher levels of the energy pyramid.