What is Productivity?

Productivity can be defined as the energy supplied to a particular ecosystem in the form of biomass or the rate at which biomass is produced in an ecosystem. This energy produced by plants in an ecosystem makes up the productivity of the ecosystem. It can also be defined as the amount of organic matter accumulated in an ecosystem per unit volume per unit of time. Ecologists generally have a separate meaning of productivity. They consider it to be a process through which carbon assimilation takes place at a particular trophic level or in the complete ecosystem.

Units of Productivity

As we know that productivity is the amount of biomass per unit volume in a unit of time in an ecosystem, so the units can of productivity be derived from the units of mass, time, and, volume. Thus the units of productivity come out to be:

= gm^-2d^-1

Productivity is an essential component of an ecosystem and is responsible for the sustenance of life in the ecosystem. The higher the productivity of an ecosystem, more is the energy available in that ecosystem. This energy that is available in the ecosystem keeps transferring from plants to animals and back to plants. The productivity of an ecosystem also influences the diversity of the ecosystem. An ecosystem with higher productivity has higher diversity as compared to an ecosystem with lesser productivity. The productivity of an ecosystem is responsible for the stability of an ecosystem.