Primary Productivity Table

Net Primary Approximate Productivity Kilocalories (Kilocalories / per square meter per square meter / year) day Growing Season # of Frost Free nights Rainfall per year in inches Type of Land % of Earth's Land Surface

Ecosystem Type

Tropical Rain Forest Estuary (the place where a river meets the sea) Swamps and Marshes Savanna (grass, scattered trees, little or no winter snow) Temperate Grassland (cold winters) Deciduous Temperate Forest Boreal Forest (Evergreen Coniferous Forest) Polar Tundra

9000 9000 9000

25 25 25 . .

365 days

More than 60 . Marshland swamps lakes streams Grassland Prairie and Savanna

11%

3%

3000 2000 6000 3500

21%

6 16 10 more than 120 days less than 120 days

10-30 30-60 12-33

Temperate Forests

22%

600

Less than 10

Desert

< 200

Less than 10

Barren ice, sand tundra desert

33%

Cultivated Land, which has generally been forest or tall grassland before its cultivation, now covers 9% of the earth's land surface. It produces 14% of the land's biomass. Agriculture that supports humans requires at least 20 inches of rainfall a year, although sometimes, when rainfall is insufficient, the natural rainfall may be supplimented with irrigation.

The total primary productivity of the ocean is about 8 times the primary productivity of all the land surface. This is about three times as much production in the ocean as the average for dry land for the same area. This productivity varies widely from season to season and place to place