BIOL 215 Lecture Notes - Fossil Fuel, Kerogen, Denitrification
11 Mar 2013
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Document Summary
It seems that because of differences in consumptions efficiencies, only a small portion of primary production is used by herbivores in terrestrial systems compared to ocean and aquatic systems. Thus, large amounts of npp are either available or funnel through detrital food web, which are used by decomposers and fungi. Because n is often a nutrient limiting production on land and in the ocean much attention is focused on the nitrogen cycle. Coupling between productivity and nutrient use: organisms need essential elements to grow - these elements are required in constant proportions, in aquatic ecology this ration is known as the redfield ratio which applies to primary producers: 106c:16n:1p [6. 6c:1n] (as mols) - phytoplankton and roughly 50-150c:1n (as mols) - higher plants. As we saw last time this view could be overly simplistic - many factors are involved in regulating primary production.
