Work in group and comment below.
Use the second law of thermodynamics to explain why predators are generally less abundant than their prey.
==Suggested Answer====
Predators are generally found at higher trophic levels than their prey as they eat higher up the food chain. For example, a lion eats a zebra that feeds on grass. The lion, a carnivore and secondary consumer, is at the third trophic level; the zebra, an herbivore and primary consumer, is at the second trophic level; and the grass, a producer, is at the first trophic level. There is less energy and biomass when going from lower to higher trophic levels. This follows the second law of thermodynamics as some energy is degraded and lost as heat at each energy conversion from one trophic level to the next. Generally, there is a 90% loss of usable chemical energy that is transferred as biomass from one trophic level to another; this is referred to as ecological efficiency. As a result, large numbers of predators (or large amounts of biomass) cannot occur at the end of a food chain, so the number of predators will be less than the numbers of their prey.
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In the second law of thermodynamics, it states that entropy will increase over time. The predatirs have to use a large amount of energy in order to gather their food. The larger the prey numbers, the better chances they have of acquiring food. If there were too many predators, there wouldn't be enough prey.
ReplyDeleteJeremy Singer, Emily Hevrdeys, and Imani Aziz
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ReplyDeleteSheena Harrison and Danielle Honeycutt
ReplyDeletePreditors are generally larger animals and require alot of energy. It takes serveral prey to provide enough energy for the preditors. If there were too many preditors, there would not be enough food or energy to support their life.
Janet Lewis, Matthew Fultz and Michelle P
ReplyDeleteDuring energy transfer energy is lost therefore predators have the least amount of energy available to them and the least amount of biomass
Matt Walter and Mollie Roberts
ReplyDeleteSince the prey are usually primary feeders they obtain the most energy through plants and when the predator eats the prey the energy is lost through heat from the prey to the predator. Because of this loss, prey retain more energy while the predator recieves much less.
Jordyn Coates, Samantha Donathan, Meghan McGee
ReplyDeleteAccording to the second law of thermodynamics, energy is lost during any conversion of heat energy to useful work. Therefore, prey are closer to the primary source, so they can receive more energy and they receive a good amount of biomass. Predators, however, are getting the least amount of energy from their prey. Predators are less abundant because they are the farthest away from the primary energy source.
Whitney Cogburn and Denise Davis
ReplyDeleteBecause the prey gets energy from either plants or other animals. But when the predator eats the prey it is losing that energy. As energy flows through ecosystems in food chains and webs, there is a decrease in the amount of chemical energy available to organisms at each succeeding feeding level. It's not effeicient because with eacch transfer, some usable chemical energy is lost as low-quality heat.
Natasha Hillman and Kari Jensen:
ReplyDeleteThe predators have the least amount of energy available to them when you look at the energy as a pyramid. If you start from the sun and work all the way up to the biggest predator, then energy starts out at a very great amount but as it works it's way through the "pyramid" it continuously loses energy so once it gets to the largest predator there is a small amount of energy because it has been lost. So we need more prey than predators sheerly because of energy.
Amy Byington Elizabeth Rhymer James Hensley
ReplyDeleteAs predators increase biomass from consupmtion of other living things, the energy level they receive is lower than the energy level the prey originally had.
Tia Nave, Brandi Poore, Tiffany Scott
ReplyDeletePreditors require more energy then their prey because preditors need more prey to eat to gain their energy. An overabundace of preditors would result in not enough prey. Preditors lose energy each time they catch and are catching their prey this results in energy lost for the preditor which becomes less abundant.
Ashley Perkins and Eva Swatzell
ReplyDeleteAs we go up the pyramid of energy flow, energy decreases with each exchange. Plants have the most energy because they gain it from the sun. As consumers eat producers, they gain energy but not the total amount that the producers had. Biomass is transferred from herbivore to carnivore when the carnivore eats the herbivore. The least amount of energy is in the predator, while the prey has more energy. Predators have to expend a lot of energy in order to hunt their prey and do not receive the same amount of energy in return once they have hunted.