Hey i am doing a lab on ecological flow web quest. give your best answer. here is the question.

if only 10% of energy is passed on from one trophic level to the next, what happens to the other 90%

The remaining 90% of the energy is lost during metabolic processes. We know that organisms need the energy to survive, thus, initially, this energy is used for the biological functioning of the living organisms. However, at later stages, when the organisms die, their bodies are broken down releasing energy to the environment. Here, this energy can become part of the natural biogeochemical cycles.