Quote:
Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate
I do believe we were taught the food pyramid rather than a regular chain. It showed that there is far more energy in rice and grains than you would get from an animal that you fed the rice and grain to. Quite an inefficient use of resources to put yourself at the top of the pyramid.
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This is basically due to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophic_level
Quote:
Every time there is an exchange of energy between one trophic level and another, there is quite a significant loss due to the fundamental laws of thermodynamics. This means so many units of grass can only support a much smaller number of units of rabbits, who can only support a smaller group of bobcats, who can only support a smaller group of mountain lions. This is why trophic levels are usually portrayed as a pyramid, one that places grass on the bottom and mountain lions on top---the top is always much smaller than the bottom. Each level implies a loss of energy and efficiency and less life that can be supported by the sun.
There is no in-principle limit to the number of levels in a trophic system, but as only a fraction of the energy of each level can be processed by the next, trophic systems with more than five levels of consumption are exceptional
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trophic_level
explains why hippos, elephants, giraffes etc are large and carnivores aren't.
An ageless, excellent, non-complicated read on the subject.
