Primary Production Flashcards
Primary production
Energy created by plants by photosynthesis
Biomass
Material from living organisms
Gross primary production
Total amount of energy produced by plants
Net primary production
Amount of energy left over after respiration taken into account
Secondary production
Convert energy into biomass
Photosynthesis
Synthesis of biomass from in organic carbon and water
Respiration
The process of energy acquisition at the cellular level
Give an ecological example of a close system and an open system
closed: hydrologic cycle, carbon cycle, phosphorus
Open: energy cycle
What are some fundamental differences between primary productivity in aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems
Land has more access to sunlight in comparison to aquatic ecosystem. Terrestrial is carbon limited and macrophytes dominated. Water nutrient limited and plankton dominated
Which ecosystem type has the highest total average world net primary productivity
Algae beds and Coral reefs
Measured as a portion of total global primary productivity one terrestrial and one marine ecosystem type standalone ahead of all the others what are they?
Open oceans and tropical rainforest
There are hotspots of Marine primary productivity name to general areas
Upwelling zones, coastal zone’s, areas that receive lots of terrestrial nutrients
Name and describe three nutrient categories of lakes going from low to high productivity
Oligotrphic, mesotrophic, eutrophic
Which of the three in the previous question is most at risk of summer kill
Eutrophic
What is a limiting factor for most terrestrial ecosystems and for marine systems
Terrestrial: carbon
Marine: bioavailable nutrients
What units might you use to quantify primary productivity
Mass per unit area per time
Grams of carbon per metre squared per day
What is often used as a Proxy measure for the rate of solar energy captured by plants
Gross primary production
Both polar bears and lions thrive at zoo
Because both have evolve to thrive in the physical and biological contexts they find themselves
Photic zone
Where light can penetrate the water and photosynthesis can happen
98% water is aphotic zone
Equatorial regions have lowest production. Why?
Because they do not have the proper nutrients and they have
What limits marine production in open ocean and in lakes
Nitrogen in ocean and phosphorus in lakes
Oxygen kill
In summer and winter when the bottom layers of the water are cut off from surface
Eutrophication
Excess in nutrients causes more productivity which take all the oxygen and cause dead zones
