Advantages of Pyramid of Energy

A pyramid of energy must be based on determination of the actual amounts of energy that individuals take in, how much they burn up during metabolism, how much remains in their waste products, and how much they store in their body tissues. The energy inputs and outputs are calculated so that energy flow can be expressed per unit area of land (or volume of water) per unit time. Though, these calculations are a bit difficult than for the other pyramids the advantages of energy pyramid is many:

1. It takes into account the rate of production, in contrast to the pyramids of numbers and biomass which indicate the standing states of organisms at a particular moment in time. Each bar of a pyramid of energy represents the amount of energy per unit area or volume that flows through that trophic level in a given time period.
2. Weights for weight two species do not necessarily have the same energy content. Comparisons based on biomass may, therefore, be misleading.
3. Apart from allowing different ecosystems to be compared, the relative importance of populations within one ecosystem can be compared and inverted pyramids are not obtained.
4. Input of solar energy can be added as an extra rectangle at the base of a pyramid of energy.