I assume you mean in the energy pyramid of living beings. A living being uses up much of the energy for its own maintenance; only a small part is stored, for example in muscle tissues (meat), and can be consumed by any other living being that eats it.
The energy that is not transferred to the next trophic level is usually lost as heat through metabolic processes or used for growth, reproduction, or other biological functions by the organism. Energy is constantly lost as it moves through the food chain due to inefficiencies in energy transfer, so only a fraction of the energy from one trophic level is passed on to the next.
as little as 10% of the energy at any trophic level is transfer to the next level
Energy may not transfer to the next trophic level due to inefficiency in energy transfer, loss of energy through metabolic processes, or energy being lost as heat during each energy transfer. Additionally, some energy may be used for movement or other activities that do not result in biomass production.
10
The ten percent law suggests or implies that exactly 90% of the energy is lost in the transfer at each trophic level, and that only 10% is passed on as useable biological energy.
10% of energy is lost as you move from 1 level to the next. So at the end 90% if the energy will be lost as heat.
Energy arrows get smaller at each stage in an energy pyramid because energy is lost as heat through metabolic processes during each transfer of energy from one trophic level to the next. The lost energy is used for respiration, movement, and other metabolic functions by the organisms in each trophic level.
It's used up by the metabolism or excreted as waste.
It gets used up. In terms of the laws of thermodynamics: it gets converted into lower-quality energy, such as heat.
Energy is lost as heat during metabolic processes, limiting the amount of energy transferred to the next trophic level. Additionally, not all organisms at a lower trophic level are consumed by organisms at the next trophic level, further reducing energy transfer efficiency. This results in only about 10% of the energy being transferred to the next trophic level.
The stored energy that does not advance from one trophic level of the food chain to the next either disappears into the air or is used by the organism containing it.
It's used up by the metabolism or excreted as waste.