The desert food chain begins with the cactus, which produces 5,500,000 kilocalories of energy. How much energy do the secondary consumers receive?

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BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

To tackle this question, start by identifying the energy flow in a typical food chain and the rule of energy transfer between trophic levels. The energy content provided belongs to the producers, the cactus, at 5,500,000 kilocalories.

Option A: 55,000 kilocalories. This value aligns with the common ecological rule of 10% energy transfer from one trophic level to the next. Specifically, energy moves from producers to primary consumers at about 10% of the producer’s energy, and then from primary to secondary consumers at about 10% of the energy available to primary consumers. If we follow this rule, secondary consumers receive roughly 10% of the energy that primary consumers have, which would be 10% of 550,000 kilocalories, yielding about 55,000 kilocalories.

Option B: 5,500 kilocalories. This would imply a 1% transfer from producers to secondary consumers or a misinterpretation of the energy transfer steps. Since primary consumers intercept most of the energy, secondary consumers do not receive this low amount.

Option C: 550,000 kilocalories. This would be the energy transferred from producers to primary consumers, not from primary to secondary consumers. If secondary consumers received 550,000 kilocalories, that would suggest a perfect or near-perfect transfer, which contradicts the widely observed 10% rule due to losses as heat and metabolism.

Option D: 50 kilocalories. This is far too small and would imply an extreme energy loss beyond typical ecological efficiency, making it biologically implausible for secondary consumers in a standard pyramid.

In summary, applying the 10% rule stepwise: energy at producers is 5,500,000 kcal; primary consumers gain about 550,000 kcal; secondary consumers gain about 55,000 kcal. The option that matches this calculation is 55,000 kilocalories, while the other choices reflect common misconceptions or misapplications of energy transfer between trophic levels.

SCI-BIO B Semester B Exam

The desert food chain begins with the cactus, which produces 5,500,000 kilocalories of energy. How much energy do the secondary consumers receive?

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