Pyramids of biomass
I can create and interpret pyramids of biomass.
Lesson details
Key learning points
- Food chains show feeding relationships between organisms and how food moves from one organism to another in a habitat.
- Biomass is the mass of living material in one or more organisms, and may be estimated.
- Pyramids of biomass show the biomass of organisms at each stage in a food chain.
- Pyramids of biomass use scaled bars to represent the total mass of organisms within a habitat.
- Pyramids of biomass have the producer at the bottom.
Keywords
Biomass - Biomass is the mass of living material in one or more organisms.
Pyramid of biomass - A pyramid of biomass is a diagram which shows the biological mass (biomass) of organisms at each trophic level in a food chain diagram.
Pyramid of numbers - A pyramid of numbers is a diagram which shows the total number of organisms at each trophic level in a food chain diagram.
Common misconception
A common misconception is that the biomass increases as you move to the next trophic level, presumably because pupils incorrectly assume that biomass refers to individuals rather than populations.
The lesson gets pupils to estimate the biomass of populations at each trophic level to demonstrate that biomass decreases at each trophic level.
Equipment
calculator
Licence
Lesson video
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Prior knowledge starter quiz
6 Questions
Q1.Look at the food web diagram below. Which of the organisms is a herbivore?
Q2.Look at the food web diagram below. Which of the organisms is a carnivore?
Q3.Look at the food web diagram below. Which of the organisms is an omnivore?
Q4.Producers make their food from which two of the following?
Q5.Look at the food chain diagram and match the organism to the correct description.
producer
primary consumer
secondary consumer
tertiary consumer
apex predator
Q6.Look at the pyramid of numbers diagram. How many producers are there in the population?
Assessment exit quiz
6 Questions
Q1.What is meant by the term 'trophic level' when we talk about food chain diagrams?
Q2.The dry mass of organisms at each trophic level is called ...
Q3.Pyramids of numbers are not as good as pyramids of biomass because...
Q4.The following diagram is a pyramid of biomass. The population of which organism has the largest biomass?
Q5.Look at the food chain diagram and its pyramid of biomass. Put the organisms in the order of biomass (largest first).
Q6.What is the biomass of the oak tree in this pyramid of biomass?