Food chains are limited to a few trophic levels mainly because:
Apredators run out of hunting space
Bdecomposers remove the top consumers
Cmost energy is lost at each transfer
Dproducers stop growing in deep water
Answer & Solution
Correct answer: C. most energy is lost at each transfer
1. Energy enters a chain when producers capture light.
2. At each transfer, only a small fraction of the energy in one level becomes body mass in the next.
3. The rest is lost as heat in respiration, in undigested material, and in excretion.
4. After a few transfers too little energy remains to support another population.
5. So it is energy loss, not space or decomposers, that sets the ceiling on chain length.
_Source: NECTA ACSEE 2023 Biology 133/2, Question 6: Ecology_
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