Practice question

“Deserts < Temperate forests < Tropical forests” for npp per unit leaf area increases in. This relationship follows from the ecological mechanism represented by the terms in the item, not merely from an association between their names. The relevant inference should follow the pathway from resource supply to organismal uptake and then to ecosystem-level flux. Productivity, trophic transfer, decomposition, and nutrient regeneration are connected, but each measures a different part of that pathway. The remaining alternatives—“Deserts < Tropical forests < Temperate forests”, “Temperate forests < Tropical forests < Deserts”, “Tropical forests < Temperate forests < Deserts”—refer to different states, processes, or scales and therefore do not express the same causal relationship. Rates depend on temperature, moisture, substrate quality, consumer physiology, and the elemental balance between organisms and their food. These controls explain why the same process can differ among terrestrial, freshwater, and marine systems without changing its definition.