10%+rule+and+Trophic+Levels

10% Rule- The bottom of the pyramid has the most energy, but as the energy moves up, the amount of energy decreases. The producer has 1000 kg., primary consumers have 100 kg., secondary consumers have 10 kg., the third consumers have 1 kg., and the fourth level consumers have .1kg.

A food chain from our food web could be a raccoon as a third consumer, to a tiger salamander as a second consumer, to a house mouse as a primary/first consumer, to berries as a producer.

We need more producers than consumers because if there were more consumers, the producers would die out, and the whole food web would break down. The result would be bad, because the primary consumers need food from the producers so they can have energy. Without primary consumers, secondary consumers would die out and then fourth level consumers would die out.