"It is said that only about 10% of stored energy is transferred between trophic levels of the ecosystem. Be specific in your explanation of how this does not contradict the law of conservation of energy. " May someone explain?
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Well, when something eats another animal, it may not be able to absorb all the materials it consumes, and also the energy it does absorb from it, it exhausts on moving, heat, so forth. So when a catipillar eats grass, it uses energy from the grass into movement, etc. and so when the bird eats the catipillar, its only getting a fraction of the energy the catipillar got from the grass. Atleast, this is how i think it works, look a little more into it.
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The energy that is not transferred from one trophic level to the next is converted to heat and radiated to space.