Question

In a natural ecosystem, the biomass of a herbivore will be ______ the biomass of a carnivore.
A) Independent of
B) Greater than
C) Lesser than
D)The same as

Answer 1

Hint: The trophic structure is described in terms of the amount of living material, called biomass, present in different trophic levels at a given time. The trophic level is the position that an organism occupies in the food web.

Complete answer:
To answer this question first we must know about the ecosystem. An ecosystem is an ecological unit comprising a community of living organisms and their environment. There is a continuous flow of energy and matter through the system. Ecosystems vary greatly in sizes such as small ponds or large forest. An ecosystem can be broadly classified as –
Natural ecosystem
Artificial ecosystem

We are here to get an insight into the natural ecosystem. It is of two types – Terrestrial ecosystem and aquatic ecosystem.
Terrestrial ecosystem – It includes grassland, tree, forest, desert etc.
Aquatic ecosystem – It further is of two types:
Lentic – this includes pond, lake and swamp.
Lotic – it includes river and sea.

We must know that on a trophic level, the first position is occupied by the producers followed by herbivores and carnivores. As the trophic level goes up its biomass decreases as the number of organisms decreases. So from the above discussion, we can say that in a natural ecosystem, the biomass of herbivore will be greater than the biomass of carnivore.

Note: The term ecosystem was given by A.G Tansley .
- The Father of the ecosystem is O.P Odum.
- Producers, herbivores, carnivores and decomposers are present in all types of ecosystem.
- All the insectivorous plant plays a double role as producers and consumers.