Name: Secondary Productivity
Uploaded: 2019-07-19
Duration: 4 min 18 s
Description: The pace at which consumers turn the chemical energy in their food into their own biomass is referred to as secondary productivity. Let's learn in detail!

Question

What will be the P/R ratio of a climax community and a pioneer community? What explanation could you offer for the changes seen in P/R ratio of a pioneer community and the climax community?

Accepted Answer

P/R ratio is the ratio between the gross productivity and the respiration of a community.

If P/R ratio is one, it indicates that the productivity and respiration are in a steady-state, that means the biomass manufactured by the producers is used by the other organisms in the metabolic processes like respiration.

If the P/R ratio is more than one, it indicates that productivity is more than the respiration, that means the organic matter is being accumulated.

If this P/R ratio is less than one, it indicates that the organic matter is depleting at a faster rate in comparison to the production.

A pioneer community is defined as the stage, in an ecosystem, that appears for the first time in a barren land, which is usually represented by Lichens. In this community, the P/R ratio will always be more than one because of the presence of less number of species.

While the climax community is the last, stable and the most diverse community during a succession which is not replaced by any other community and is represented by the trees. In such a stable community, the P/R ratio is always equal to one.

What will be the P/R ratio of a climax community and a pioneer community? What explanation could you offer for the changes seen in P/R ratio of a pioneer community and the climax community?

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