trophic efficiency

Trophic efficiency refers to the percentage of energy that is transferred from one level of a food chain to the next. In ecological terms, energy flows from producers, like plants, to consumers, like herbivores, and then to predators. However, not all energy is passed on; much is lost as heat or used for the organism’s own life processes. Typically, only about 10% of the energy from one level is available to the next. This concept helps explain why there are fewer top predators than herbivores or plants in an ecosystem.