Only a small fraction of energy at one trophic level ever reaches the next, which is why ecosystem analysis focuses on finding where that flow bottlenecks.
energy_transferred ~ 10% rule per trophic level
bottleneck where transfer < demand
- Grid resolution — landscape cells the trophic-flow analysis is run across.
- Trophic levels modelled — how many feeding levels (producer through apex predator) are tracked.
- Disturbance intensity — rate of external pressure reducing energy availability at any level.
- Energy transfer efficiency — fraction of energy that actually passes to the next trophic level (typically ~10%).
The famous '10% rule' of trophic energy loss is exactly why food chains rarely exceed 4-5 levels — there simply isn't enough energy left to support a sixth.