Which ecosystem shows higher herbivore consumption efficiency?
Herbivores in many aquatic systems consume a larger fraction of primary production than terrestrial forest herbivores. Phytoplankton are small, rapidly renewed, nutrient-rich, and poorly defended by lignified structural tissue, so much of their production is accessible to zooplankton. In forests, a large share of plant production enters wood, roots, and chemically defended leaves and therefore bypasses grazers into the detrital pathway. The comparison concerns consumption efficiency, not necessarily total consumer biomass. Environmental effects are often nonlinear; drought suppresses microbial
Ref: Fundamentals of Ecology, Odum & Barrett, 5th Ed., Ch. 3
