plants are the type of organism that would occupy the bottom trophic level.
which type of organism would occupy the bottom trophic level?
plants
the trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food chain. a food chain is a succession of organisms that eat other organisms and may, in turn, be eaten themselves. the trophic level of an organism is the number of steps it is from the start of the chain. a food chain starts at trophic level 1 with primary producers such as plants, can move to herbivores at level 2, carnivores at level 3 or higher, and typically finish with apex predators at level 4 or 5. the path along the chain can form either a one-way flow or a food "web". ecological communities with higher biodiversity form more complex trophic paths.
trophic level
energy transfer between trophic levels is generally inefficient, such that net production at one trophic level is generally only 10% of the net production at the preceding trophic level (the ten percent law). due to non-predatory death, egestion, and cellular respiration, a significant amount of energy is lost to the environment instead of being absorbed for production by consumers. the figure approximates the fraction of energy available after each stage of energy loss in a typical ecosystem, although these fractions vary greatly from ecosystem to ecosystem and from trophic level to trophic level. the loss of energy by a factor of one half from each of the steps of non-predatory death, defecation, and respiration is typical of many living systems. thus, the net production at one trophic level is formula_1 or approximately ten percent that of the trophic level before it.
ecological efficiency