How does the 10 percent rule relate to the term entrophy?

Answer 1

The 10 percent rule, often associated with energy transfer in ecosystems, suggests that only about 10 percent of the energy from one trophic level is passed on to the next, while the rest is lost as heat, contributing to entropy. Entropy, in thermodynamic terms, refers to the measure of disorder or randomness in a system, and as energy is dissipated, the overall entropy of the ecosystem increases. This interplay illustrates how energy transformations lead to increased disorder, underscoring the inefficiencies of energy transfer within ecological systems. Thus, the 10 percent rule highlights the inevitable increase in entropy as energy flows through trophic levels.