Primary production is the production of organic compounds from atmospheric or aquatic carbon dioxide. It may occur through the process of photosynthesis, using light as a source of energy, or chemosynthesis, using the oxidation or reduction of chemical compounds as a source of energy. Almost all life on earth is directly or indirectly reliant on primary production. The organisms responsible for primary production are known as primary producers or autotrophs, and form the base of the food chain. In terrestrial ecoregions, these are mainly plants, while in aquatic ecoregions algae are primarily responsible. Primary production is distinguished as either net or gross, the former accounting for losses to processes such as cellular respiration, the latter not.
Read more about Primary Production: Overview, GPP and NPP, Terrestrial Production, Oceanic Production, Measurement, Human Impact and Appropriation
Famous quotes containing the words primary and/or production:
“A fact is a proposition of which the verification by an appeal to the primary sources of our knowledge or to experience is direct and simple. A theory, on the other hand, if true, has all the characteristics of a fact except that its verification is possible only by indirect, remote, and difficult means.”
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—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)