4.6 understand the transfer of substances and of energy along a food chain

Plants use energy from the sun in photosynthesis, this energy makes its way through the food chain as animals eat the plants and each other.

However, not all the energy that's available to the organisms in a trophic level is passed on to the next trophic level, this is because 90% of the energy is lost in various ways. These include...

- Indigestible energy is not taken in in the first place (e.g. fibre), it is just digested out
- Lots of energy is used for the 7 life processes
- Lots of the energy is lost in heat

NOTE: Only around 10% of energy becomes biomass (e.g. it is stored for growth etc). This is transferred onto the next trophic level once the organism is eaten.