Trophic Level Energy Calculator

Every additional trophic level multiplies the surviving energy by your Transfer Efficiency again, so the loss compounds level after level -- going from 3 levels to 7 levels at the default 10% efficiency means multiplying by 0.1 four extra times, which shrinks the top level's energy far more than any single change to Transfer Efficiency or Primary Production alone.

No -- it's a widely cited rough average, not a fixed law. Documented transfer efficiencies across real ecosystems typically range from about 5% to 20% depending on the organisms and energy pathways involved, which is why this calculator lets you adjust Transfer Efficiency rather than hardcoding 10%.

Biomass ratio describes the relative size of the food chain's base compared to its top, which depends only on how much energy is lost at each transfer step (Transfer Efficiency) and how many transfer steps there are (Number of Trophic Levels) -- not on the absolute scale of energy entering the system, which is what Primary Production represents.

Each additional trophic level requires another round of energy loss to support it, so the base of the food chain has to support proportionally more producer biomass to sustain a longer chain at the same top-level energy. That's why Producer:Top Biomass Ratio grows quickly as Number of Trophic Levels increases, especially at lower transfer efficiencies.

No -- it's a simplified approximation based purely on the same energy-transfer efficiency used elsewhere in this calculator. Real standing biomass at each trophic level also depends on organism size, generation turnover rate, and reproductive strategy, which can make actual biomass pyramids look quite different from what a pure energy-transfer calculation predicts.