1. © Getty Images/Taxis BIOL 3240 Plant and Animal Ecology Primary Production – Energy Flow What is primary production? What influences primary production? What is Gross primary production? What is net primary production?

2. © Getty Images/Taxis BIOL 3240 Plant and Animal Ecology Primary Production – Energy Flow What influences Primary production?

3. What differences? Why?

4. Discuss with your neighbor… Why was precipitation alone (without temp) sufficient to account for most of the variation in grassland primary productivity? How are the desert dune and tundra ecosystems the same? How would actual evapotranspiration (AET) and net primary production in the desert system (hot desert) and the tundra system likely respond to a significant increase in precipitation?

5. What factors explain this variation?

6. What would happen if you manipulated the abundance of these food web participants?

8. ____________________ If consumers use 66% of primary productivity on Serengeti… what is the impact on PP? Effective at any level?

9. Trophic Dynamic View of Ecosystems As energy is transferred from one trophic level to another, energy is degraded: Energy quality decreases with each successive trophic level.

11. How are isotopes useful in ecology?