Production efficiency - ecosystem, Biology

Assignment Help:

Production Efficiency - Ecosystem

The maximum amount of solar energy harvested by plants is about 5 per cent but the average for green plants, on the whole is only a small fraction of sunlight, i.e., 0.02 per cent reaching the atmosphere. The production efficiency that is the ratio of net primary production to gross primary production (of green plants) is on the average rather high. It varies between 40 to 85 per cent. The most efficient are those plants which have low maintenance requirement due to minimum non-photosynthetic (non green) tissues, such as in grasses, algae and phytoplankton. Algae and crops like corn have an efficiency of about 80 to 85 per cent, submerged aquatic plants 60 to 75 per cent, deciduous forests about 42 per cent. Different ecosystems have different productivities.

Productivity of ecosystems depends on a variety of factors such as sunlight, temperature, rainfall and the availability of nutrients. Those situations that provide the best circumstances for plant growth are the most productive. Warm, moist, sunny areas with high levels of nutrients in the soil are ideal. Some areas have low productivity because one of the essential factors is missing. Deserts have low productivity because water is scarce, arctic areas too have low productivity because temperature is low, and open oceans also have low productivity because nutrients are in short supply. Coral reefs and tropical rain forests have high productivity. Marshes and estuaries are-highly productive since waters running into them are rich in the nutrients and they also get enough light.


Related Discussions:- Production efficiency - ecosystem

Potential and excitation threshold for neurons, Q. How different are the co...

Q. How different are the concepts of action potential, resting potential and excitation threshold concerning neurons? Action potential is the maximum positive voltage level ach

Define development - terminologies used in chromatography, Define Developme...

Define Development - Terminologies used in Chromatography? Development is the process of passing a mobile phase over the adsorbent or support. During the development the sample

Air pollution - environmental pollution, Air Pollution - Environmental Poll...

Air Pollution - Environmental Pollution The threat due to air pollution became apparent only when some severe episodes caused human casualty in USA, Britain (London) and Japan

Radioactive labelling, Radioactive Labelling Radioactive labelling me...

Radioactive Labelling Radioactive labelling method has been effectively applied on the chick blastoderm. The method includes labelling one embryo (donor) and grafting a part

Define platyhelminthes - larval stages of fasciola hepatica, Platyhelminthe...

Platyhelminthes - Larval Stages of Fasciola Hepatica and Taenia Solium? You have already studied the representative species of classes Turbellaria, Trematoda and Cestoda of Ph

Artificial kidney, ARTIFICIA L KIDNEY - Dialysis employs the process o...

ARTIFICIA L KIDNEY - Dialysis employs the process of diffusion across a semipermeable membrane to remove unwanted urea . Dialysis is of 2 types - 1. Haemodialysis -

What are the main human degenerative diseases, Q. What are the main human d...

Q. What are the main human degenerative diseases? The major human degenerative diseases are divided into three groups, neoplastic diseases and degenerative diseases of the nerv

Explain fusion inhibitor, Fusion inhibitor  After HIV binds to the host...

Fusion inhibitor  After HIV binds to the host cell surface, a conformational change occurs in the transmembrane glycoprotein sub- unit (gp41) of the viral envelope, facilitatin

What is dry mass, What is dry mass? When biomasses are compared often t...

What is dry mass? When biomasses are compared often the method of dry mass is used. The dry mass is the total mass less the water mass of an individual. The total mass is also

Female drosophila with singed bristles, A female Drosophila with singed bri...

A female Drosophila with singed bristles is crossed to a male with sepia (dark brown) eyes. In the F1, all females are wild-type and all males have singed bristles. F1 males and fe

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd