Explain what is meant by the statement The amount of food energy passed along grows smaller and smaller as the chain becomes longer?

Answer 1

That statement is talking about a food chain and the amount of available energy: The most energy is available at the producer level. A producer is a plant that gets energy from the sun. The producer is able to make lots of energy by photosynthesis. Then the producer gets eaten by a first-level consumer. This is typically an herbivore (something that eats only plants) but could also be an omnivore (something that eats both plants and meat). Either way, when the first-level consumer eats the producer, it uses most of the energy for its life processes. Life processes are things like growing, having energy to go find more food, reproducing, and caring for young. Surplus energy is stored in the form of fat. This first-level producer gets eaten by a second-level consumer. This might be a carnivore (something that eats only meat) or another omnivore. The second-level consumer can only get the stored energy from its food. This means that there is less energy available to it than there was to the first-level consumer. This chain continues, with less and less energy being available at each step. Because of this fact, there needs to be many producers and low level consumers to support the higher level consumers.