A total of 10 ,000 kcal of energy is available for the producers. How much energy is available to the secondary consumers? 10,000 kcal 1000 kcal 100 kcal 10 kcal

## Step 1<br />In an ecological food chain, energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next. However, not all energy is transferred efficiently. A significant portion of the energy is lost at each level, primarily due to the second law of thermodynamics, which states that energy transformations are never 100% efficient and some energy is always lost as heat.<br /><br />## Step 2<br />The general rule of thumb in ecology is that only about 10% of the energy from one trophic level is transferred to the next level. This is known as the 10% rule.<br /><br />## Step 3<br />In this problem, we are given that the producers have 10,000 kcal of energy. According to the 10% rule, only 10% of this energy will be transferred to the primary consumers.<br /><br />### \(10\% \times 10,000 = 1,000 \, kcal\)<br /><br />## Step 4<br />Similarly, only 10% of the energy from the primary consumers will be transferred to the secondary consumers.<br /><br />### \(10\% \times 1,000 = 100 \, kcal\)