Primary Production of Inland Aquatic Ecosystems

Given the world’s expanding human population, it is important to evaluate the net primary production of different ecosystems that can provide food. The inland aquatic ecosystems comprise less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, but often are among the most productive areas. Many of these aquatic ecosystems have undergone dramatic changes in recent years as a result of man’s activities. In some cases the change has been beneficial to man’s short-term desires and requirements, but often the changes have been detrimental (e.g., polluted water supplies) because man has used water bodies widely as an inexpensive receptacle for waste products. Other responses and their implications were initially less obvious; for example, even though some aquatic ecosystems have been fertilized artificially by man’s activities, thereby increasing productivity (cultural eutrophication), in many cases this productivity has been shifted to species less suitable for human consumption (e.g., Beeton, 1969; Beeton and Edmondson, 1972).