Answers to Review Questions
1. Population B should have a higher assimilation efficiency due to the higher food quality of its diet. The garbage and plant component of population A's diet is higher in materials that are difficult to digest, and its C:N ratio is also lower than that of population A's rodent diet.
Thus, the amount of food assimilated would be greater in population B.2. The seasonal and diurnal temperature variations in these animals' environments are different and should result in different production efficiencies. The marine environment is more thermally stable, and thus the marine mammals should need to invest less energy in coping with temperature changes than the mammals in the terrestrial ecosystem. As a result, the marine mammals should be able to invest more energy in growth and reproduction.
3. The forest would have a greater total amount of energy flowing through its trophic levels because a greater amount of energy would enter that ecosystem at the first trophic level. However, a larger proportion of the energy entering the lake ecosystem would pass through its higher trophic levels due to its higher consumption and production efficiencies.