Most solar energy occurs at wavelengths unsuitable for photosynthesis. Between 98 and 99 percent of solar energy reaching Earth is reflected from leaves and other surfaces and absorbed by other molecules, which convert it to heat. Thus, only 1 to 2 percent is available to be captured by plants. The rate at which plants photosynthesize depends on the amount of light reaching the leaves, the temperature of the environment, and the availability of water and other nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus. The measurement of the rate at which organisms convert light energy (or inorganic chemical energy) to the chemical energy of organic compounds is called primary productivity. Hence, the total amount of energy assimilated by plants in an ecosystem during photosynthesis (gross primary productivity) varies among environments. (Productivity is often measured by an increase in biomass, a term used to refer to the weight of all living organisms in an area. Biomass is reported in grams or metric tons.)

Much of the energy assimilated by plants through photosynthesis is not stored as organic material but instead is used during cellular respiration. In this process organic compounds such as carbohydrates, proteins, and fats are broken down, or oxidized, to provide energy (in the form of adenosine triphosphate [ATP]) for the cell’s metabolic needs. The energy not used in this process is stored in plant tissues for further use and is called net primary productivity. About 40 to 85 percent of gross primary productivity is not used during respiration and becomes net primary productivity. The highest net primary productivity in terrestrial environments occurs in swamps and marshes and tropical rainforests; the lowest occurs in deserts. In aquatic environments, the highest net productivity occurs in estuaries, algal beds, and reefs. Consequently, these environments are especially critical for the maintenance of worldwide biological productivity.

Energy transfers and pyramids

A small amount of the energy stored in plants, between 5 and 25 percent, passes into herbivores (plant eaters) as they feed, and a similarly small percentage of the energy in herbivores then passes into carnivores (animal eaters). The result is a pyramid of energy, with most energy concentrated in the photosynthetic organisms at the bottom of food chains and less energy at each higher trophic level (a division based on the main nutritional source of the organism; see community ecology: Trophic pyramids and the flow of energy). Some of the remaining energy does not pass directly into the plant-herbivore-carnivore food chain but instead is diverted into the detritus food chain. Bacteria, fungi, scavengers, and carrion eaters that consume detritus (detritivores) are all eventually consumed by other organisms.

The rate at which these consumers convert the chemical energy of their food into their own biomass is called secondary productivity. The efficiency at which energy is transferred from one trophic level to another is called ecological efficiency. On average it is estimated that there is only a 10 percent transfer of energy (Figure 2).

Energy is lost in several ways as it flows along these pathways of consumption. Most plant tissue is uneaten by herbivores, and this stored energy is therefore lost to the plant-herbivore-carnivore food chain. In terrestrial communities less than 10 percent of plant tissue is actually consumed by herbivores. The rest falls into the detritus pathway, although the detritivores consume only some of this decaying tissue. Oil and coal deposits are major repositories of this unused plant energy and have accumulated over long periods of geologic time.

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The efficiency by which animals convert the food they ingest into energy for growth and reproduction is called assimilation efficiency. Herbivores assimilate between 15 and 80 percent of the plant material they ingest, depending on their physiology and the part of the plant that they eat. For example, herbivores that eat seeds and young vegetation high in energy have the highest assimilation efficiencies, those that eat older leaves have intermediate efficiencies, and those that feed on decaying wood have very low efficiencies. Carnivores generally have higher assimilation efficiencies than herbivores, often between 60 and 90 percent, because their food is more easily digested.

The overall productivity of the biosphere is therefore limited by the rate at which plants convert solar energy (about 1 percent) into chemical energy and the subsequent efficiencies at which other organisms at higher trophic levels convert that stored energy into their own biomass (approximately 10 percent). Human-induced changes in net primary productivity in the parts of the biosphere that have the highest productivity, such as estuaries and tropical moist forests, are likely to have large effects on the overall biological productivity of Earth.