Many people in the world have very little protein in their diet. They are often

Question

Many people in the world have very little protein in their diet. They are often able to grow crops to feed themselves but do not raise cattle or other sources of meat.

1) describe the trophic levels when they eat crops, and describe the levels when they eat cattle meat.

2) Describe energy flow efficiency from one trophic level to the next.

3) Describe why these people are not likely to use some the crops they raise to feed to cattle.

4) Describe why their diet habit could greatly contribute to conservation of the ecosystem where they live.

please... help...

Explanation / Answer

1. When people eat crops, they are primary consumers ( herbivores or first level consumers) . They are at the second tropic level. When they eat cattle meat ( carnivores), they are secondary consumers and are at third tropic level.

2. As energy passes to a higher tropic level, approximately 90% of the useful energy is lost. High tropic levels contain less energy.At each tropic level in a food chain, energy is used by the organisms at that level to maintain their own life process. In moving to the next tropic level, only 10 % of the original energy is available. By the third tropic level only 1% of the energy is available.

3. Some people think that meat is a healthier diet as compared to plant based diets. And when it comes to raising cattle, cattle usually feed on crops rich in fibre and cellulose. humans can not digest cellulose. So People rather prefer to eat meat.

4. Energy is used much more efficiently if humans eat plants (first tropic level) instead of meat (second tropic level. A given area of farmland can support more people if the crops are fed directly to people rather than to livestock that people then eat.

For example if a man needs 3,000 Calories per day, then 30,000 Cal beef are needed, which in turn need 300,000 Cal of corn, which in turn means 30,000,000 Cal of sunshine. This works out to be 1.5 acres of corn per day per person. If the person ate corn directly then 10 people could be supported by the same 1.5 acres of corn.

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