Environmental Studies(ES)

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Lesson 12: Food chains, food webs and ecological pyramids

Pyramids of biomass

They are more fundamental and show the quantitative relationships of the standing crops. In grassland and forest, generally there is a gradual decrease in biomass of organisms at successive levels from the producers to the top carnivores. Thus, these pyramids are upright. However, in a pond ecosystem, the producers are small organisms and hence their biomass is least. This value gradually shows an increase towards the apex of the pyramid, this making the pyramid inverted in shape.