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Solar Energy and Productivity

Solar Energy and Productivity. TREN 1F90: Sustainability, Environment and Tourism. Solar Energy and Productivity. Average annual solar energy input to the surface of the earth is about 1.5 x 10 6 kcal / m 2 / year

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Solar Energy and Productivity

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  1. Solar Energy and Productivity TREN 1F90: Sustainability, Environment and Tourism

  2. Solar Energy and Productivity • Average annual solar energy input to the surface of the earth is about 1.5 x 106 kcal / m2 / year • Primary producersconvert solar energy into potential energy of chemical bonds in their tissues through photosynthesis Arctic ice diatoms: Melosira arctica Young oak seedling Quercus sp. on forest floor Reindeer “moss”: the lichenCladonia rangiferina

  3. Solar Energy and Productivity • The overall rate of this conversion is called Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) • Subtracting the amount of energy required for cellular maintenance and respiration of the primary producer yields Net Primary Productivity (NPP) GPP – (respiration and maintenance) = NPP

  4. Productivity in different ecosystems • Productivity and biomass production vary widely in different biomes • Most productive environments per unit area: wetlands and estuaries • Least productive environments per unit area: deserts and open ocean

  5. Energy and Trophic Levels

  6. Energy and Trophic Levels HETEROTROPHS Feed on other animals (2° and up) Feed on plants (1° consumers) Fourth Trophic Level Third Trophic Level Second Trophic level • AUTOTROPHS: • photosynthetic • chemosynthetic First Trophic Level Plants, algae,cyanobacteria

  7. 5 - 20% 5 - 20% Animal bio- mass 5 - 20% of biomass passes between levels Plant biomass

  8. Energy for growth and metabolism

  9. Energy and nutrient flow in an ecosystem

  10. Energy and nutrient flow in an ecosystem

  11. Complex and difficult to diagram A given organism may function at one trophic level or multiple trophic levels at the same time Food webs

  12. Simplified elements of a food web in Lake Erie

  13. Biogeochemical cycles

  14. Prominent • Hydrologic (water) cycle • Geologic (rock) cycle include • Carbon cycle • Nitrogen cycle • Phosphorus cycle

  15. Hydrologic cycle and land

  16. Groundwater

  17. Geologic (rock) cycle

  18. Major elements of a nutrient cycle for a defined ecosystem Source: Modified from Likens et al. (1977)

  19. Elements of the global carbon cycle Units: billions of tonnes of carbon (109 t) Fluxes between compartments are in 109 t/y. Sources: Blasing (1985), Solomon et al. (1985), and Freedman (1995)

  20. Global carbon cycle - simplified

  21. Nitrogen cycle

  22. Phosphorus cycle

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