Marine Biology

Ecological Pyramid

An ecological pyramid (or trophic pyramid) is the graphical representation of the trophic structure such as number, biomass and energy of an ecosystem. The use of this ecological pyramid was first proposed by Charles Sutherland Elton (1927), and hence these ecological pyramids are called Eltonian pyramid. Ecological pyramids begin with producers on the bottom and proceed through the various trophic levels, the highest of which is on top. There are three types of ecological pyramids, viz. i) pyramid of numbers, ii) pyramid of biomass and iii) pyramid of energy.