The Energy Pyramid

1
The Energy Pyramid

• Notes green

2
Energy Pyramid

• The energy pyramid is a way to classify levels of
  energy in an ecosystem.
• It is similar to a food pyramid in the way that
  the higher up the pyramid you go, the fewer
  things belong in that group.
• As you step up each section of the energy
  pyramid, some energy is lost due to the organism
  using it to live. Only the stored energy is
  passed on.

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Example

• Note the pyramid on the left. At the bottom are
  thousands of plankton. As you move up the
  pyramid, all those plankton end up supplying
  energy to just one shark!

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The math

• A very important part of understanding the energy
  pyramid is seeing how the energy transfers from
  the bottom level to the top level.
• Refer to pg 313 math break in your book for this
  problem!

5
The question

• Draw an energy pyramid for a river ecosystem that
  contains four levels- aquatic plants, insect
  larvae, bluegill fish, and a largemouth bass. The
  aquatic plants obtain 10,000 units of energy from
  the sun. If each level uses 90 of the energy it
  receives from the previous level, how many units
  of energy are available for the largemouth bass.

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Lets break the question down

• Whats it about?
• Draw an energy pyramid for a river ecosystem that
  contains four levels- aquatic plants, insect
  larvae, bluegill fish, and a largemouth bass. The
  aquatic plants obtain 10,000 units of energy from
  the sun. If each level uses 90 of the energy it
  receives from the previous level, how many units
  of energy are available for the largemouth bass.
• There are 4 levels! Each is labeled.

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• Now how much energy is being used?
• Draw an energy pyramid for a river ecosystem that
  contains four levels- aquatic plants, insect
  larvae, bluegill fish, and a largemouth bass. The
  aquatic plants obtain 10,000 units of energy from
  the sun. If each level uses 90 of the energy it
  receives from the previous level, how many units
  of energy are available for the largemouth bass.
• So plants start with 10,000 and each level uses
  90.

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• What am I looking for?
• Draw an energy pyramid for a river ecosystem that
  contains four levels- aquatic plants, insect
  larvae, bluegill fish, and a largemouth bass. The
  aquatic plants obtain 10,000 units of energy from
  the sun. If each level uses 90 of the energy it
  receives from the previous level, how many units
  of energy are available for the largemouth bass.
• The units from the biggest organism the bass!

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How to set it up

• I like to draw a table to enter the information
  like this.

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Step by step
Now I just do the math for each step. There are
two types of math problems for each step.
Finding the percentage used and subtracting that
from the amount received to find what was passed
on!
10,000
9,000
1,000
900
100
90
10 units