Pyramids of Biomass

• Pyramids of biomass display the biomass of each trophic level in a food chain.
• Grass is the producer in a food chain represented by a pyramid.
• Rabbits are the primary consumer in the food chain represented by a pyramid.
• Snakes are the secondary consumer in the food chain represented by a pyramid.
• Hawks are the tertiary consumer in the food chain represented by a pyramid.
• Biomass is the mass of living organisms.
• The bar at the bottom of a pyramid represents the total mass of all the grass in the food chain.
• The next bar in a pyramid represents the total mass of all the rabbits.
• The next bar in a pyramid represents the total mass of all the snakes.
• The total mass of organisms in each level of a food chain decreases as the trophic levels get smaller.
• Only about 10% of the biomass and energy gets transferred up to the next level in a food chain.
• Organisms don't normally eat every single part of the organism they're consuming.
• Even the bits that organisms do eat might not be absorbed if they can't break them down properly.
• Most of the nutrients that animals do absorb are used to release energy through respiration rather than for growth.
• The biomass gets released as waste products like carbon dioxide and urea rather than being stored within the organism forever.
• The efficiency of biomass transfer is the percentage of the biomass that has passed on each time and is calculated by dividing the biomass transferred to the next level by the biomass that was available at the previous level and multiplying the whole thing by 100.