Where does the energy go that is lost in the energy pyramid?

Answer 1

Only the energy stored as biomass (stuff that the next organism up eats and successfully absorbs) makes it up to the next layer of the pyramid. The rest i lost because the animal doing the eating doesn't absorb all of the energy in the food, the animal moves around expending energy, some (quite a lot actually) is lost as heat in warm-blooded animals, etc. In fact very little of the energy absorbed by one layer of the pyramid through eating makes it up to the next layer.

Answer 2

Every creature uses part of the energy for its own maintenance. Only a small fraction of the energy is stored in structures that are eaten by other creatures (like fruits in the case of plants, or muscle tissue in the case of animals).

Answer 3

Some is "lost" because organisms in that level use it for their own biological processes and in the process much is lost as heat.

Answer 4

90% of the energy consumed by animals is lost as heat, which is used to keep the organism at optimum temperature for the processes of life (cellular respiration, etc.)

Answer 5

Energy is lost in the pyramid because it is either used up or it is lost as heat.

Answer 6

10% of the energy is lost as you go up the food chain.

Ex. grass = 100%, cricket = 10%, Frog = 1%, Snake = 0.1%, and owl = 0.01%.