This
concept is often associated with description of food chains and food web. An
ecological pyramid is an illustration of the reduction in energy as we move
through each feeding (tropic) level in the ecosystem. The base of the pyramid
is large since ecosystem’s energy factories (the plant producers) are
converting solar energy into chemical energy through photosynthesis. A food
chain can also depict a reduction in energy at each tropic level if the arrow
drawn at different levels; continue to be reduced in size.
Ecological
pyramid can be represented in three ways:
(1) Pyramid of numbers: it can be generated by counting all
the organisms at different feeding levels. This is a difficult task as we are
not just identifying each species in the ecosystem but also counting how many
of each species are present. Sometimes this may not work. For example, one tree
(a producer) can represent an ecosystem and harbor numerous populations of
herbivores and carnivores. Thus, the bottom of pyramid would be very small and
not broad.
(2) Pyramid of biomass:
