(1) Green plants of the ecosystem store large amount of energy in the form of carbohydrates and proteins.
(2) Before reaching the decomposers, this energy is passed through different trophic levels like primary consumer, secondary consumer, tertiary consumer, etc.
(3)The amount of energy reduces as we move from lower trophic levels to higher ones. Energy is lost as it gets transferred from one organism to another because energy is lost as metabolic heat when the organism of one trophic level consumes the organisms of another trophic level. This can also be explained on the basis of 10% rule which states that when energy is passed in an ecosystem from one trophic level to the next, only ten percent of the energy will be passed onto the next trophic level.
This can be explained with the help of energy pyramid in case of an aquatic ecosystem.
As, we move from lower trophic level to the higher trophic level, there is a decrease in the amount of energy which is transferred.
