Energy flow (ecology)

Energy flow is the flow of energy through living things within an ecosystem. All living organisms can be organized into producers and consumers, and those producers and consumers can further be organized into a food chain. Each of the levels within the food chain is a trophic level. In order to more efficiently show the quantity of organisms at each trophic level, these food chains are then organized into trophic pyramids. The arrows in the food chain show that the energy flow is unidirectional, with the head of an arrow indicating the direction of energy flow; energy is lost as heat at each step along the way. The unidirectional flow of energy and the successive loss of energy as it travels up the food web are patterns in energy flow that are governed by thermodynamics, which is the theory of energy exchange between systems. Trophic dynamics relates to thermodynamics because it deals with the transfer and transformation of energy (originating externally from the sun via solar radiation) to and among organisms. The first step in energetics is photosynthesis, wherein water and carbon dioxide from the air are taken in with energy from the sun, and are converted into oxygen and glucose. Cellular respiration is the reverse reaction, wherein oxygen and sugar are taken in and release energy as they are converted back into carbon dioxide and water. The carbon dioxide and water produced by respiration can be recycled back into plants. Energy loss can be measured either by efficiency (how much energy makes it to the next level), or by biomass (how much living material exists at those levels at one point in time, measured by standing crop). Of all the net primary productivity at the producer trophic level, in general only 10% goes to the next level, the primary consumers, then only 10% of that 10% goes on to the next trophic level, and so on up the food pyramid. Ecological efficiency may be anywhere from 5% to 20% depending on how efficient or inefficient that ecosystem is.