Total rate at which primary producers capture energy into organic matter.
Operational definition
Ecosystem rate.
The total rate at which primary producers fix inorganic carbon into organic matter before subtracting the producers’ own respiratory use.
In a broad energetic taxonomy it includes:
- gross photosynthetic primary production;
- gross chemosynthetic primary production.
It must be expressed per unit time and, ordinarily, per unit area, volume, or ecosystem.