Question

Do use the following information to answer the question.

Info: this shows a caterpillar who has 200 J potential energy which is broken down as followed 100 J goes into feces, 67 J goes to cellular respiration 33 J goes into growth.

explain why approximately 80 to 95% of the potential energy available at one tropic level is not transferred to the next. And how much of Potential energy is transferred to the next traffic level.

Answer 1

[AI-generated answer — Bot GPT 3.5]

Approximately 80 to 95% of the potential energy available at one trophic level is not transferred to the next due to inefficiencies in energy transfer and metabolic processes. Some of the energy is lost as heat during cellular respiration, feces production, and other metabolic activities. Additionally, not all the energy consumed by an organism is digested and absorbed efficiently. Energy is also lost through movement, reproduction, and other biological processes.

In this scenario, only 33 J of potential energy from the caterpillar's initial 200 J is transferred to the next trophic level, which represents about 16.5% of the total potential energy. The rest is lost as feces production (50%) and cellular respiration (33.5%).