Answer to Question #263108 in Ecology for Rich

Question

a farmer grows crops in one of his fields. suggest how he could estimate the chemical energy store in the dry mass of one of his cabbage

Answer 1

Primary production is the synthesis of organic compounds from atmospheric carbon dioxide. Ecologists distinguish primary production as either net or gross, the former accounting for losses to processes such as cellular respiration, the latter not. An example of gross primary production is equal to all of the carbon taken up by the vegetation through photosynthesis. An example of net primary productivity, or the production of plant biomass, is equal to all of the carbon taken up by the vegetation through photosynthesis minus the carbon that is lost to respiration.