The sun provides vast amounts of energy, but only 1% is converted into stored food by plants. Most of this energy is then used by the plant to grow, fight infection and produce flowers, so even less of this 1% is available to the herbivore or first order consumer that eats the plant.

The herbivore will gain about 10% of the energy from the plant, in turn use most of this energy by moving, keeping warm, breathing and other processes to keep alive. At this stage very little of the energy from the sun is available for the carnivore (second order consumer) as it gains 20-30% of the energy from the herbivore.

The hunting carnivore has another problem, energy must be used just to catch its meal and restore its energy levels. The excess energy is lost as waste heat. To keep a food chain in balance there are few carnivores, many herbivores and numerous plants in any one environment.

Bibliography

Baker, et al. Pathways into Senior Geography. (Melbourne: Nelson, 1995)

Pain, Bliss & Smith. Pathways to Geography HSC Course. (Melbourne: Macmillan, 1995)

The Software Toolworks Multimedia Encyclopaedia, Release 6. (New York: Grolier, 1996)

Snyder, et al. Biology - The Spectrum of Life. (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 1990)