Secondary Consumers are best described as?

Secondary Consumers are best described as?

• A. Carnivores that eat primary consumers; energy transfer is less efficient at this level
• B. Herbivores
• C. Autotrophs
• D. Decomposers

Answer: (A)

Secondary consumers are the carnivores that feed on primary consumers, occupying the next step up from producers in the food chain. They obtain energy by eating herbivores, turning the energy stored in plant-eater biomass into animal biomass. Because energy transfer between trophic levels is inefficient, only a fraction of the energy available at one level is stored as new biomass at the next; most is lost as heat or used for metabolism, so energy available to secondary consumers is relatively small. This is why secondary consumers are typically fewer in number and biomass than primary producers or herbivores. They’re distinct from producers (autotrophs), which make their own food, from herbivores (primary consumers), which eat plants, and from decomposers, which break down dead material and recycle nutrients rather than feeding on living organisms at a specific higher trophic level.

Secondary consumers are the carnivores that feed on primary consumers, occupying the next step up from producers in the food chain. They obtain energy by eating herbivores, turning the energy stored in plant-eater biomass into animal biomass. Because energy transfer between trophic levels is inefficient, only a fraction of the energy available at one level is stored as new biomass at the next; most is lost as heat or used for metabolism, so energy available to secondary consumers is relatively small. This is why secondary consumers are typically fewer in number and biomass than primary producers or herbivores. They’re distinct from producers (autotrophs), which make their own food, from herbivores (primary consumers), which eat plants, and from decomposers, which break down dead material and recycle nutrients rather than feeding on living organisms at a specific higher trophic level.