based on the food chain below, if a bald eagle acquires 50 kg of energy, how much energy did the zooplankton…

based on the food chain below, if a bald eagle acquires 50 kg of energy, how much energy did the zooplankton get from the phytoplankton? phytoplankton → zooplankton → bivalves → sea ducks → bald eagle 500 kg 5,000 kg 50,000 kg 500,000 kg

based on the food chain below, if a bald eagle acquires 50 kg of energy, how much energy did the zooplankton get from the phytoplankton? phytoplankton → zooplankton → bivalves → sea ducks → bald eagle 500 kg 5,000 kg 50,000 kg 500,000 kg

Answer

Answer:

500,000 kg

Explanation:

Step1: Recall energy - transfer rule

In a food - chain, only about 10% of the energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next.

Step2: Calculate number of trophic - level transfers

There are 4 trophic - level transfers from zooplankton to bald eagle (zooplankton → bivalves → sea ducks → bald eagle).

Step3: Work backwards to find zooplankton energy

Let the energy of zooplankton be $x$. The energy of bald eagle is 50 kg. Since energy transfer is 10% or 0.1 at each step, we have the equation $50=x\times(0.1)^4$.

Step4: Solve for $x$

$x=\frac{50}{(0.1)^4}=\frac{50}{0.0001}=500000$ kg.