college biology

Question

A deer grazing on a field has 20,000 kcal of net primary productivity available to it. Critical values for the deer’s consumption, assimilation and production efficiencies are given below. 

Assume the following: a deer’s Consumption efficiency (I/Pn-1) = 40%  

Therefore, a deer will not be able to consume all of the available 20,000 kcal 

(0.4 X 20,000 = 8,000 kcal will be consumed) 

Assume that the Assimilation Efficiency of a deer = 20% and the Production efficiency = 5% 

4a. Using these assumptions, how much energy will be incorporated into secondary production by the deer? (2 pts)  

4b. How much energy will be lost to respiration? (2 pts)

Answer 1

Assimilation Efficiency is the amount of consumed material that will be absorbed into the body of the deer. It is broken down by the digestive system and absorbed through the intestinal wall.

Production Efficiency is how much of the consumed material will be incorporated into organic compounds that make up the body of the deer.

The difference between the two numbers is the amount that is lost as the deer carries out it's life functions (cellular respiration).

In this example, assimilation efficiency is identified as 20%. That means that your deer will absorb 20% of the 8,000 kcal that it consumed (1,600 kcal).

In this example, production efficiency is identified as 5%. That means that your deer will make 5% of the material into organic compounds that make up its body (400 kcal).

The difference between these two values is the amount of energy that was lost to respiration. The deer absorbed it, but was not able to incorporate it into its body.