Question

What do you understand by primary and secondary productivity?

Answer 1

Productivity:

1. Productivity is the rate of biomass production per unit area.
2. Biomass measures the mass of living organic material in a specific area or ecosystem.

Primary productivity:

1. The primary productivity of a community is the rate at which biomass is produced per unit area by plants, the primary producers.
2. There are two types of primary productivity - Net primary productivity and Gross primary productivity.
3. The total fixation of energy by photosynthesis is gross primary productivity.
4. The proportion which remains after respiration losses in the plant is termed net primary productivity.
5. Primary productivity depends on the plant species inhabiting a particular area.
6. It also depends on various environmental factors, the availability of nutrients, and the photosynthetic capacity of plants.

Secondary productivity:

The rate of production of new biomass by heterotrophs is called secondary productivity.