A smaller food chain is said to be more efficient than a larger one. Why?

Explanation

**Step-by-Step Solution:**

1. **Understanding Food Chains**: A food chain represents the flow of energy from one organism to another, starting from producers (like plants) and moving up to various levels of consumers (herbivores, carnivores, etc.).

2. **Energy Transfer Efficiency**: In any food chain, energy transfer occurs from one trophic level to the next. However, this transfer is not 100% efficient. According to the 10% law proposed by Lindeman, only about 10% of the energy from one trophic level is passed on to the next level.

3. **Energy Loss**: The remaining 90% of energy is lost primarily as heat during metabolic processes. This means that as you move up the food chain, there is significantly less energy available to support higher trophic levels.

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