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Carbon's widespread abundance, its ability to form stable bonds with numerous other elements, and its unusual ability to form polymers at the temperatures commonly encountered on Earth enables it to serve as a common element of all known living organisms. In a 2018 study, carbon was found to compose approximately 550 billion tons of all life on ...
Gross primary production (GPP) is the amount of chemical energy, typically expressed as carbon biomass, that primary producers create in a given length of time.Some fraction of this fixed energy is used by primary producers for cellular respiration and maintenance of existing tissues (i.e., "growth respiration" and "maintenance respiration").
However, most marine primary production comes from organisms which use photosynthesis on the carbon dioxide dissolved in the water. This process uses energy from sunlight to convert water and carbon dioxide [ 4 ] : 186–187 into sugars that can be used both as a source of chemical energy and of organic molecules that are used in the structural ...
An autotroph is an organism that can convert abiotic sources of energy into energy stored in organic compounds, which can be used by other organisms.Autotrophs produce complex organic compounds (such as carbohydrates, fats, and proteins) using carbon from simple substances such as carbon dioxide, [1] generally using energy from light or inorganic chemical reactions. [2]
Secondary production is the energy that herbivores and decomposers use and thus depends on primary productivity. [16] Primarily herbivores and decomposers consume all the carbon from two main organic sources in aquatic ecosystems , autochthonous and allochthonous . [ 16 ]
The primary producers can convert the energy in the light (phototroph and photoautotroph) or the energy in inorganic chemical compounds (chemotrophs or chemolithotrophs) to build organic molecules, which is usually accumulated in the form of biomass and will be used as carbon and energy source by other organisms (e.g. heterotrophs and mixotrophs).
The other process of primary production is lithoautotrophy. Lithoautotrophs use reduced chemical compounds such as hydrogen gas, hydrogen sulfide, methane, or ferrous ion to fix carbon and participate in primary production. Lithoautotrophic organisms are prokaryotic and are represented by members of both the bacterial and archaeal domains. [13]
Primary production occurs in autotrophic organisms of an ecosystem. Photoautotrophs such as vascular plants and algae convert energy from the sun into energy stored as carbon compounds. Photosynthesis is carried out in the chlorophyll of green plants. The energy converted through photosynthesis is carried through the trophic levels of an ...