Question

What is primary productivity? Give brief description of factors that affect primary productivity.

Answer 1

Primary productivity is the amount of organic matter or biomass produced per unit area per unit time by the plants due to the process of photosynthesis. It is of two types: gross primary productivity and net primary productivity.

Factors affecting primary productivity are;

Sunlight: Tropics recieve maximum sunlight and poles recieve minimum. Therefore there is maximum photosynthesis and net primary productivity in tropics.

Temperature: Due to lower temperature of temperate forests, their productivity is less as compared to tropical rain forests.

Moisture: There is an increase in productivity due to rain and humidity

Nutrients: Productivity increases due to presence of nutrients. Productivity of desert soil is less due to deficiency of nutrients.