LIFE SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -There are many more producers in a food chain than consumers or decomposers because only 10% of the energy from each energy level is passed on to the next energy level.

Detailed explanation-2: -The primary producer uses some of that energy. Because we lose energy each time we move up a trophic level, we have more producers than consumers, more herbivores than carnivores, more primary consumers than secondary consumers. See this Socratic answer for more detail.

Detailed explanation-3: -Because biomass decreases with each trophic level, there are always more autotrophs than herbivores in a healthy food web. There are more herbivores than carnivores. An ecosystem cannot support a large number of omnivores without supporting an even larger number of herbivores, and an even larger number of autotrophs.