Q. The variation in biomass at different tropic levels in a pond ecosystem is represented by which of the given pyramids?

 153  162 NTA AbhyasNTA Abhyas 2020 Report Error

Solution:

The ecological pyramids graphically represents the biomass or bio-productivity at each trophic level in a particular ecosystem. The biomass pyramids represent the amount of biomass (the amount of living or organic matter present in an organism) present in the organisms at each trophic level. The given pyramid represents pyramid of biomass in an aquatic ecosystem (pond or sea ecosystem). In this pyramid, biomass of phytoplankton’s, i.e., producers (represented by PP) is smaller relative to zooplankton i.e., primary consumers (represented by PC) and biomass of secondary consumers is the largest (represented by SC). Zooplankton feed upon phytoplankton. In a pond /sea ecosystem, phytoplankton, the major producers, will be lower than the mass of the heterotroph, such as fish and insects. Hence, the pyramid of biomass is inverted in the pond /Sea ecosystem.