Ohio 5th Grade Science OST Practice Test

Energy pyramids show how energy moves from one part of the ecosystem to another and how much energy is available at each step. The base of the pyramid is the producers, which capture sunlight and store energy. As energy moves up to herbivores, then to carnivores, a lot of it is used for life processes or lost as heat, so only a small portion gets passed on to the next level. That’s why higher levels have much less energy to work with, and the pyramid narrows the further you go up. In simple terms, energy decreases at each trophic level, and there’s less energy available to higher levels.