🚀 Bite-sized Summary: Secondary production is like a "savings account" for animals, where they store carbon compounds they get from food. But here's the catch: as we move up the food chain, there's less "money" (carbon compounds) left for each level. Why? Let's dive in!

• Definition: It's the storage (or accumulation) of carbon compounds in biomass by animals and other organisms that don’t produce their own food (called heterotrophs). Think of it as animals saving energy!

🍰 Real-world example: Imagine you eat a delicious slice of cake (yum!). The cake has sugars and other carbon compounds. As you digest it, your body will use some of these compounds to make proteins and other vital stuff.

• Every organism, no matter where they are in the food chain, uses carbon compounds to breathe and get energy (this is called "respiration").
• BUT...respiration burns up these carbon compounds, leading to a loss in biomass (think of it like using up the battery on your phone).

🍕 Real-world example: Think of pizza. If 10 friends share 1 pizza, there will be fewer slices per person than if only 2 friends shared it. Similarly, there's less biomass to go around at each higher trophic level because some of it is used up in respiration.