Who proposed the 10% energy law in ecological pyramids?
Raymond Lindeman proposed the trophic-dynamic framework from which the approximate ten-percent transfer rule is commonly derived. His 1942 work quantified how production declines across trophic levels because organisms fail to consume or assimilate all available material and expend assimilated energy in respiration. The rule is a teaching approximation rather than a fixed constant; measured efficiencies vary widely. The option’s spelling “Lindemann” is nonstandard, but it clearly refers to Lindeman and does not change the intended attribution. Standardizing by area and, for rates, by time is e
Ref: Fundamentals of Ecology, Odum & Barrett, 5th Ed., Ch. 3