An energy pyramid illustrates that energy in the form of is lost to the surroundings as it is passed from one organism to the next?

The answer is metabolic heat.

Organisms from the higher trophic levels consume organisms from the lower trophic level and during that process, energy is lost as metabolic heat. Primary producers (plants) contain the greatest amount of energy originally from the sunlight. The next trophic level belongs to primary consumers that consume primary producers. During consumption, energy is lost. Similarly, secondary consumers eat primary consumers and energy is lost again. The highest trophic level is tertiary consumers that contains the least amount of energy.