Ace Your Certify Teacher Exam 2025 – Ignite Your Teaching Dreams!

The primary reason there are fewer organisms at the top tertiary level of an energy pyramid is that the amount of energy within each level decreases as you move up the pyramid. This is a fundamental concept in ecology known as the 10% rule, which suggests that only about 10% of the energy from one trophic level is passed on to the next. As a result, energy diminishes significantly at each subsequent level.

In an energy pyramid, producers (plants) capture energy through photosynthesis and provide the highest amount of energy, which supports a larger number of primary consumers (herbivores). As energy is transferred to secondary consumers (carnivores that eat herbivores) and then to tertiary consumers (top predators), there is less energy available to support these higher trophic levels. Consequently, because energy diminishes significantly at higher levels, there are fewer organisms able to survive and thrive, leading to a decrease in population density among tertiary consumers.

This decline is directly linked to the energy constraints in the ecosystem, rather than other factors such as overhunting, reproductive rates, or lifecycle periods, which may influence populations at different levels but are not the primary reason for the diminishing number of organisms at the top of the energy pyramid