Question

Consider the following food chain :
Grass `to` Mice `to` Snakes `to` Peacocks
If in this chain, 100 J of energy is available at the producer level, then calculate the energy transferred to the peacocks as food. State the law used in the calculations.

Answer 1

The producer level in this food chain is grass, so 100 J of energy is available in grass as food. We have now to apply 10 per cent law to the above food chain :
(i) According to ten per cent law, `10%` of the energy of grass will be available as food in mice. Thus, the energy available to mice will be `10%` of 100 J, which is 10 J.
(ii) The energy available to snakes will be `10%` fo 10 J which is 1 J.
(iii) And finally, the energy available to peacocks will be `10%` of 1 J, which id 0.1 J.
The above conclusions can now be depicted as follows :
`underset(100J)("Grass")overset(10%)(to)underset(10J)("Mice")overset(10%)(to)underset(1J) ("Snakes")overset(10%)(to)underset(0.1J) ("Peacocks")`