Biology 20 HELP PLEASE!! I can't figure this out for the life of me?

Question

Explain why the energy transfer from a snowshoe hare to a carnivorous lynx is less efficient than energy transfer from grass to a snowshoe hare.

Answer 1

It's simply to do with the loss of energy during the eating or whatever.

(ie the snowshoe hare used more energy than the grass did and so the carnivourous lynx doesn't get as much. He also has to eat more.)

Answer 2

People always over-complicate things! I'm guessing the reason is that the lynx has to use a lot of energy to chase its food. The snowshoe hare just sits still and eats the grass in front of it. :-D

Answer 3

I can't because it isn't.  Most of the cellulose and lignin in plants passes through a hare's digestive system... twice, without significant digestion, thus making transfer of energy from grass to hares very inefficient.  (Yeah, you heard me, twice.  They don't chew cud.  They chew once-over c**p.  Disgusting, eh?)

By contrast, carnivores can almost completely digest meat.  Much less energy loss in this transfer.

Answer 4

Because as energy moves up trophic levels the less energy there is to pass on.  At each level the organisms uses the energy they acquired so when the energy keeps moving up the less energy that is really being transfered from when it initially started with the producers. Sorry this is really bad explaining heres a website maybe this will help:

http://www.uwsp.edu/cnr/WCEE/keep/Mod1/F...