The pyramind of numbers unlike food chains or food webs, shows the population of each organism in a food chain and is presented in a sort of bar chart called a pyramid of numbers. The more organisms there are, the wider the bar. The producer in the food chain always goes at the bottom of the pyramid of numbers. Think about this food chain: clover → snail → thrush → hawk. Clover is a plant and producer in this food chain. Its bar goes at the bottom of the pyramid, the pyramind is above. Energy is lost to the surroundings as we go from one level to the next, so there are fewer organisms at each level in this food chain. A lot of clover is needed to support the snail population. A thrush eats lots of snails, and a hawk eats lots of thrushes, so the population of hawks is very small.
However, it doesn't always form a pyramind shape, this can happen if the producer is a large plant such as a tree, or if one of the animals is very small. Remember, though, that whatever the situation, the producer still goes at the bottom of the pyramid. Make sure you display the population in the same order as normal even if it doesn't form a pyramind, do not make the mistake of changing it so it looks like a pyramind. This is another classic mistake made by KS3 students.
