Total biomass and production

Whittaker and Likens (1973) ventured preliminary estimates of animal consumption, production and biomass, compiled perhaps from an amount 

1 Ecosystem type 2 Area (10 km ) 3 Animal consumption (%) 4 Herbivore consumption (10 tCyr ) 5 Total animal production (10 tCyr ) 6 Animal biomass (gCm ) 7 Total animal biomass (10 t C) 

Pools of organic carbon in secondary producers in the sea (in 10 t wet weight and 10 t C ratio wet weight/organic carbon is 12.5 wet weight figures are from Conover, 1978). 

Column 4 of Table VII gives the net primary production consumed by herbivorous animals, based on estimates of percentE e consumption in different ecosystem types (column 3 of Table VII) related to total net primary production. The values in column 5 in Table VII, animal production, are calculated by multiplying herbivore consumption (column 4) by gross efficiencies of 15%. Animal secondary production (1.376 X 10 t C yr ) represents 5—6% of net primary production in the sea (cf. Table I). 

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