Calculate the production efficiency for each of the following consumers: Organis

Question

Calculate the production efficiency for each of the following consumers: Organism A: plant material ingested: 8,000 joules, assimilated: 4,000 joules, new biomass: 2,000 joules Organism B: plant material ingested: 8,000 joules, assimilated 6,000 joules, new biomass: 180 joules. If one of these two primary consumers is a bird and the other is an insect, which is which? Why What happened to the energy from the original plant material that was not used in secondary production? If both of these consumers are the main prey species eaten by secondary consumers in their respective food chains, which food chain would you expect to be longer? Why?

Explanation / Answer

Answer

production efficiency = 8000 – 2000 – 4000 / 8000 – 2000
= 2000 / 6000
= 0.33
production efficiency = 8000 – 1820 – 6000 / 8000 – 1820
                                        = 180 / 6180
                                       = 0.098

production efficiency higher for insects than for birds. Organism A - insects

Organism chain A food chain would you expect to be longer. It has higher new biomass, so it acts as food for other
organisms.
organism B have lower biomass it is not useful has a pery.

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