What is happened to the over all energy ina food chain?

As energy passes from one trophic level to the next, some of it is lost as heat. This is because no organism is 100% efficient at converting the energy it consumes into biomass. Additionally, some energy is lost to the environment through respiration and other processes. As a result, the total amount of energy available at each trophic level decreases as the food chain progresses.

Here is a more detailed explanation of what happens to the energy in a food chain:

* Producers (plants) use the sun's energy to convert carbon dioxide and water into glucose through the process of photosynthesis.

* Primary consumers (herbivores) eat plants and use the energy stored in the plant tissue to build their own bodies.

* Secondary consumers (carnivores) eat primary consumers and use the energy stored in the animal tissue to build their own bodies.

* Tertiary consumers (top carnivores) eat secondary consumers and use the energy stored in the animal tissue to build their own bodies.

At each trophic level, some of the energy that is consumed is used for respiration, which is the process by which organisms convert glucose into energy. The rest of the energy is stored in the organism's body tissue. When an organism dies, its body tissue is decomposed by bacteria and fungi, which release the energy stored in the tissue back into the environment.

As a result of these processes, the total amount of energy available at each trophic level decreases as the food chain progresses. This is why there are fewer top carnivores than herbivores in most ecosystems.

The amount of energy lost at each trophic level is typically between 10% and 90%. This means that only a small fraction of the energy that is originally available at the producer level is actually used by top carnivores.