What is the essence of the rule of the ecological pyramid, as well as its importance in the development of species? This is a very interesting question that you need to understand if you need to calculate how many certain living organisms a certain territory can withstand. So what is the essence of the rule of the ecological pyramid?
general information
What is the essence of the rule of the ecological pyramid and what is it? Initially, it is necessary to indicate that this is the name for certain models that can be represented in graphical form (like triangles). They reflect the numerical characteristics of individuals of certain species, the amount of biomass that they possess, or energy at a certain
trophic level. A feature of this approach is that all indicators fall as they rise higher in the triangle. Thus, one can judge how many individuals of a certain species can exist in a certain territory. There are three main types of ecological pyramids. They differ in the basis, which is taken as a system factor. So what is the essence of the rules of the ecological pyramid for each of them? We’ll talk about this now.
Pyramid of numbers
It is aimed at reflecting the number of individual organisms that occupy a certain level. Speaking about the essence of the rule of the ecological pyramid, it should be noted that this approach is used quite rarely due to the fact that a large number of individuals at trophic levels complicates the display of the biocenosis structure on the same scale.
In order to better understand it, let's look at one example. Suppose we have a pyramid. At its base is one thousand tons of grass. All this mass is hundreds of millions or even billions of blades of grass. They serve as food for grasshoppers. Using this amount of grass, fifteen million insects can feed. They, in turn, go to feed for fifty thousand frogs. This amount of amphibians is enough to maintain the number of three hundred trouts in the pond. If a person has only fish available for consumption, then this is enough for him to live only one year. This is what the ecological pyramid rule is all about. What is the essence? The fact that the size of the base and the top differs in a significant way. What is one thousand tons of grass? If the author has not lost the ability to count, then this is a million kilograms. In practice, exceptions can often be noticed from this approach. So, there is a tree. Parasitic insects live on it. And they are already consumed by certain types of birds. In such cases, the pyramid of numbers will look like a yule. We pass to the next model.
Biomass Pyramid
In this case, the relationship between producers and consumers is sought, which is based on mass (energy content, total dry weight, etc.). In cases where the organisms are similar in size, then at the output when compiling, a
step pyramid is obtained
, at which the tip narrows. Parallels can be drawn to the productivity of functioning.
So, consider a large field. The greatest mass will be here in plants that are producers. Then come the first-order consumers. As an example, consider ungulates. They are followed by primary carnivores, or second-order consumers. And so on. In this case, the higher we rise in this way, the smaller the weight of a living organism per square meter will be. For example, a lion is a strong and dangerous predator. But try to find it somewhere else in the shroud! And as a result, its mass will be many times lower than the grass weight per square meter. This rule is almost without exception valid for terrestrial animals.
But in the aquatic habitats of living organisms, one can also see an inverted (inverted) pyramid of biomass. In such cases, producers weigh less than consumers, or even than reducers. At the base are animals, not plants. What does it look like in reality? There are living organisms such as phytoplankton. Its total mass is often lower than that of zooplankton and end users like mollusks, large fish and whales. But this is more than offset by high productivity.
Energy pyramid
This is the last, third model. It reflects the magnitude of the energy flow in the form of the speed of passage of the mass through the food chain. It is based on very interesting statements. Thus, the structure of the biocenosis with this approach is most affected not by a fixed amount of energy, but by the rate of creation of food. What does the generalized rule of the ecological pyramid look like? What is the essence? The base should be green plants. And when there is movement to the top, the amount of energy that is absorbed naturally decreases. The ten percent rule applies here. That is, only 10% of the energy that goes on this goes to the next level. The general pattern in this case is that the higher we go up, the less energy we see. Thanks to this, large predators are so rare. Therefore, there are no those who feed on wolves or lions, since they are not numerous.
Specificity
Of course, the information presented only reflects the overall picture. And to approach absolutely everything with one measure is still not necessary. Each model has its own specifics of use, a more detailed familiarization with which requires a completely different format than the article. Most attention should be paid to the energy pyramid, since the ten percent rule here is used only as a facilitating and generalizing moment.
Conclusion
So this article comes to an end, in which an important modeling tool was considered. Now, if you come across the question: "What is the essence of the rule of the ecological pyramid, determine" - this will not cause a hitch, but you can immediately tell what it is. Thanks to such models, in the future it will be possible to successfully colonize other planets, study various space systems and do a lot of other things. Indeed, in this case, we can calculate how many people can live in a certain territory at a certain stage of settlement.