Ecosystem Productivity FY Botany Productivity is amount of energy formed by an individual, population, or community per unit area and time.

Typical units might be kcal m-2 yr-1 PP, GPP and NPP

- Primary production: The amount of light energy converted to chemical

energy by an ecosystems autotrophs in a given time period is an ecosystems primary production. An ecosystems energy budget depends on primary production. 99.9% of the primary production is plant (means that the majority of primary production is photosynthesis rather than chemoautotrophic)

- Gross Primary Productivity (GPP): Gross primary production (GPP) is the total
energy (or nutrients) assimilated by an ecological unit (such as an organism, a population, or an entire community). Or The measure of all photosynthesis that occurs in an ecosystem. Or Gross primary production (GPP) is the rate at which an ecosystem's producers capture and store a given amount of chemical energy as biomass in a given length of time.

- Net primary production (NPP) is equal to gross primary production minus the
energy used by the primary producers for respiration (R): NPP = GPP R Thus Net productivity is the amount of energy trapped in organic matter during a specified interval at a given trophic level less that lost by the respiration of the organisms at that level. Or It is a amount of the gross primary production that remains after all the losses to respiration. Trophic Efficiency:

- Trophic efficiency is the percentage of production transferred from one trophic

level to the next. Trophic efficiencies must always be less than production efficiencies because they take into account not only the energy lost through respiration and contained in feces, but also the energy in organic material at lower trophic levels that is not consumed. Trophic efficiencies usually range from 5% to 20%. In other words, 8095% of the energy available at one trophic level is not transferred to the next. Factors Affecting Productivity

1. Solar radiation and Temperature 2. Moisture : Precipitation, Rate of transpiration 3. Mineral Nutrition : Uptake of minerals from soil, Rhizosphere effect, fire effects, Salinity, Heavy metal, Nitrogen availability 4. Biotic activity: Grazing, Above ground herbivores, Below ground herbivores, Predators and parasites, Diseases of primary producers. 5. Nutrient Cycling: Plants require a variety of nutrients, some in large quantities and some in small quantities. Primary productivity sometimes removes nutrients from the system faster than they can be replenished. If a nutrient is removed in such quantities that sufficient amounts are no longer available, it becomes the limiting nutrient. Adding the limiting nutrient will stimulate the system to resume growth until another nutrient or it becomes limiting (usually nitrogen or phosphorus). 6. Carbon dioxide availability sometimes limits productivity. 7. Impact of human population Generally, precipitation, temperature, and light intensity are factors limiting productivity in terrestrial ecosystems. Productivity increases as latitudes approach the equator because availability of water, heat, and light increases in the tropics. An aquatic ecosystem's productivity is usually determined by light intensity, water temperature, and availability of inorganic nutrients.

- Productivity is greatest in shallow waters near continents and along coral reefs due to abundant nutrients and sunlight. Light intensity and temperature affect primary productivity of phytoplankton in the open oceans; productivity is highest near the surface and decreases with depth. Inorganic nutrients are limiting at the surface of open ocean waters with nitrogen and phosphorus in especially short supply. This is a primary reason for the relatively low productivity of open oceans. Marine phytoplankton is most productive where upwellings bring nutrient-rich waters to the surface. These areas (usually in Antarctic seas) are more productive than tropical seas. Thermal vent communities are also very productive though they are not very widespread and contribute little to marine productivity. Freshwater ecosystem productivity also varies from the surface to the depths in relation to light intensity. Availability of inorganic nutrients is sometimes limiting, but biannual turnovers bring nutrients to the surface waters.