In an upland grassland ecosystem, the primary producers are various species of wild grasses.
Sunlight that can potentially be used in photosynthesis by green plants is called photosynthetically active radiation (PAR).
(i) In one year, 5.64×109 kJ m−25.64 \times 10^9 \text{ kJ m}^{-2}5.64×109 kJ m−2 of PAR fell on an area of this grassland. The wild grasses converted 7.25×107 kJ m−27.25 \times 10^7 \text{ kJ m}^{-2}7.25×107 kJ m−2 of this energy into biomass.
Calculate the energy in the PAR that the grass plants did not convert into biomass. Give your answer in standard form to three significant figures.
A bird of prey, the merlin, is a predator in this ecosystem. The current breeding population of merlins in a regional reserve is estimated at 112 pairs. This represents 64%64\%64% of the estimated population twenty years ago.
Calculate the estimated breeding population of merlins in the reserve twenty years ago, rounded to the nearest whole number.
