Why don't food chains have 20 trophic levels?

Answer 1

The most levels that are found are 4. These are found in the tropical rain forests. The reason is that only 10% of the energy is passed from the lower levels to the next level. If the lowest level is 100%, the next will be 10%, the third level will be 1%, there will be very little energy to even pass to the 4th level. Remember, that each level has to support living organisms. That is why the top level has only few apex predators.

Answer 2

Even the most productive only has 4 levels. If you start with 100% energy in the first level (plants) only 10% is passed on to the next level. For the third level only 10% of 10% is passed on.

So starting with 100%, the second level can have 10% to use, the third level can have 10% of 10% or 1% to use. By the fourth level ehere is 10% of 1% left to substain any life. That is 0.1%. Only the most diverse system can have up to 4 levels. That is usually rain forests or jungles.

Answer 3

The producer obtains it's energy from the sun and this is converted into chemical energy in the process called photosynthesis. This chemical energy, or in other words, this sugar molecule is used to build the structure of the plant together with other molecules. Therefore every cell or part of the plant consists of energy.

As you go along the food chain, the energy decreases, at the end, there is very little energy to sustain another organism, so it is very rare to see 6th trophic level.

Answer 4

Food chains do not typically have 20 trophic levels because each trophic level represents a transfer of energy, and with each transfer, energy is lost as heat. As a result, energy decreases as it moves up the food chain, making it inefficient to sustain 20 trophic levels. Most food chains have around 3-5 trophic levels to efficiently transfer energy.

Answer 5

The amount of energy left by the fifth link is only a small portion of what was available at first link.

Answer 6

Because large amounts of energy are lost at each trophic level. So if there were more than 5 then the predator would not be recieving signifant amounts of energy in order to survive.