Ecological Pyramids: Producers Outnumber Consumers?

[gracy]

you eat two to three times your mass per year;

say if my mass is 43 kg i will be eating 103 kg of biomass of plant per year?

 

[Bystander]

Give or take a chef's salad.

 

[gracy]

It depends on the metabolic rate of the specific consumer: you eat two to three times your mass per year; a shrew might eat two to three times its mass per day. If "producer" biomass is insufficient to feed you or the shrew, you starve, reducing "consumer" biomass to whatever level "producer" biomass can support.

O k i understood why Consumer mass is never going to exceed producer mass. But why can't biomass of both producer and consumers be equal?Why there is so much difference?

 

[gracy]

Give or take a chef's salad.

I didn't understand .Is this related with my question?

 

[Bystander]

Yes, you said that at 43 kg you'd be eating 103 kg per year, and I agreed, "Give or take a salad," or one or two meals.

 

[gracy]

Yes, you said that at 43 kg you'd be eating 103 kg per year, and I agreed, "Give or take a salad," or one or two meals.

if my mass is 43 kg i will be eating 103 kg of biomass of plant per year if i will be eating ONLY salad,otherwise very much than 103 kg.Right?please answer to my 33rd post.

 

[gracy]

This indicates that there are much producers than consumers.This imply to most of the cases(ecosystem)there are only some exceptions as in oak tree.That's what my question is .Even though population has increased so much,deforestation is on it's peak but still there are lot more producers than consumers.Right?

 

[Bystander]

In this context, yes, still more producers than consumers. Deforestation hasn't decreased number of producers, it's just changed what plants are producing. Population doesn't mean just human population, it includes other animals as well.

 

[fedaykin]

There are usually a lot less consumers, heterotrophs, than producers, autotrophs, because a portion of the energy will always be lost with each transfer. Some of it will be due to heat loss while other parts will be due the energy required to digest and process the producer.

 

[aroc91]

There can be cases in which consumer biomass is greater than producer biomass, but it's only a temporary situation. If producers are killed off, consumers will decline in population as a response because they won't have as much food to support them.