What typically happens to most energy as it is transferred between trophic levels?

In an ecosystem, as energy flows from one trophic level to the next, a significant portion of that energy is typically released as heat. This process occurs due to the second law of thermodynamics, which states that energy conversions are not 100% efficient. When organisms utilize energy for various biological processes such as metabolism, movement, reproduction, and maintenance, some energy is inevitably transformed into heat and dissipated into the environment.

As energy is passed from producers (like plants) to primary consumers (herbivores) and then to higher trophic levels (like carnivores), only about 10% of the energy from one level is usually transferred to the next. The remainder is lost largely as heat due to metabolic processes. This heat loss is a fundamental aspect of energy transfer in ecological systems and plays an important role in regulating the flow of energy through the ecosystem.