1.8- Primary Productivity

Primary Productivity- the rate that solar energy is converter into organic compounds via photosynthesis over a unit of time

• Units: kcal/M^2,yr

• rate of plant growth

• high pp= more biodiversity

Respiration loss: the amount of energy used during cell work

Gross primary productivity- the total amount of solar energy that plants capture and converts to energy

Net primary productivity- the amount of energy/biomass leftover for consumers

NPP= GPP - RL

Ecological Efficiency

The portion of incoming solar energy that is captured by plants and converted into biomass(NPP or food available for consumers

• Generally, 1% of the sun is captured and converted and 40% of that is converted into biomass

Trends in Productivity

• The more productive a biome is, the wider the diversity of animal life it can support/increase biodiversity

• Water availability, higher temperature, and nutrient availability are all factors that lead to high NPP

  • desert and tundra and the open ocean have low productivity

Beavers video

• change their diets depending on the time of year

• vicious territorial disputes

• learned to build dams to protect themselves

• rich habitat; biodiverse

• dams filter the water and regulate it flows

• social; take care of kids

• “little people”

• used as fur and food; almost eliminated

• water went with the beavers as they disappeared

• eradicating beavers was a big mistake with domino consequences

• bringing them back will restore our environment