page_title: Ecological pyramid
hierarchical_section_title: Ecological pyramid
caption_attribution_description: English: An energy pyramid is a presentation of the trophic levels in an ecosystem. Energy from the sun is transferred through the ecosystem by passing through various trophic levels. Roughly 10% of the energy ass transferred from one trophic level to the next, thus preventing a large amounts of trophic levels. There must be higher amounts of biomass at the bottom of the pyramid to support the energy and biomass requirements of the higher trophic levels.
context_page_description: An ecological pyramid is a graphical representation designed to show the biomass or bioproductivity at each trophic level in a given ecosystem.
  A pyramid of energy shows how much energy is retained in the form of new biomass at each trophic level, while a pyramid of biomass shows how much biomass is present in the organisms. There is also a pyramid of numbers representing the number of individual organisms at each trophic level. Pyramids of energy are normally upright, but other pyramids can be inverted or take other shapes.
  Ecological pyramids begin with producers on the bottom and proceed through the various trophic levels. The highest level is the top of the food chain.
  Biomass can be measured by a bomb calorimeter.
context_section_description: An ecological pyramid (also trophic pyramid, Eltonian pyramid, energy pyramid, or sometimes food pyramid) is a graphical representation designed to show the biomass or bioproductivity at each trophic level in a given ecosystem.
  A pyramid of energy shows how much energy is retained in the form of new biomass at each trophic level, while a pyramid of biomass shows how much biomass (the amount of living or organic matter present in an organism) is present in the organisms. There is also a pyramid of numbers representing the number of individual organisms at each trophic level. Pyramids of energy are normally upright, but other pyramids can be inverted or take other shapes.
  Ecological pyramids begin with producers on the bottom (such as plants) and proceed through the various trophic levels (such as herbivores that eat plants, then carnivores that eat flesh, then omnivores that eat both plants and flesh, and so on).  The highest level is the top of the food chain.
  Biomass can be measured by a bomb calorimeter.
caption: A pyramid of energy represents how much energy, initially from the sun, is retained or stored in the form of new biomass at each trophic level in an ecosystem. Typically, about 10% of the energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next, thus preventing a large number of trophic levels. Energy pyramids are necessarily upright in healthy ecosystems, that is, there must always be more energy available at a given level of the pyramid to support the energy and biomass requirement of the next trophic level.
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