Ecological roles of Protists

Question 1

What is gross primary production?

Answer 1

the amount of energy from light (or chemicals, in chemoau- totrophic systems) converted to the chemical energy of or- ganic molecules per unit time.

Question 2

Net primary production?

Answer 2

is equal to gross primary production minus the energy used by the primary producers for their “autotrophic respiration”

Question 3

What is the most productive ecosystem in g/m2/yr?

Answer 3

tropical land areas

Question 4

Eventhough the open ocean is considerably less productive than other marine ecosystems,
It still contributes 24.4% to the Earth’s net primary production. Why?

Answer 4

because of its size

Question 5

What ecosystem is non-photosynthetically based? What type of bacteria is at the base of the food chain in this particular ecosystem?

Answer 5

The marine benthic zone is non-photosynthetically based being that it is the sea floor below the surface waters of the coastal. No sunlight reaches this area. Numerous invertebrates and fishes, as well as chemoautotrophic prokaryotes that live as symboints for these invertebrates.