Q. In a food chain, the solar energy utilized by plants is only ____:
Answer: 0.1 per cent
Notes: Plants, on average, capture only about 0.1 0.4 percent of the solar energy reaching Earth. However, it does not mean that the rest is a “vast untapped reservoir” awaiting man’s exploitation. All biological systems, including crops, follow the second law of thermodynamics when solar energy (a high-energy form) is converted into chemical energy. Plants utilize this chemical energy in the process of building their own tissue.