In a food chain,if 10000 joules of energy is available to the producer,how much energy will be available to the secondary consumer to transfer it to the tertiary consumer

At each trophic level about 10% of the energy of the previous trophic level is passed to the next food chain. This is known as 10% law. Now according to this law only 10% of the energy is transfer to each trophic level. So if 10000 joules of energy is available to produce then to primary consumer only 1000 joules would be available and to the secondary consumer 10% of the energy of the primary producer would be transfer which is 100 joules.

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Given - 10000 J of energy is avalable to producers (plants)

We know that the plants are able to synthesize only 1% of total energy available to them.

So, energy produced by producers = 1/100 * 10000 = 100 J

Accroding to 10 % law, only 10% of total energy entering a trophic level is available to next, higher torphic level. 

So, energy transferred to secondary consumer = 10/100 * 100 = 10 J

Similarly, only 10% of energy entering the secondary consumers is available to tertiary consumer.

So, energy transferred to tertiary consumer = 10/100 * 10 = 1 J

 

Hope this helps!!

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