Justify the following statement in terms of ecosystem dynamics. "Nature tends to increase the gross primary productivity, while man tends to increase the net primary productivity".
Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) is the rate of production of organic matter in an ecosystem. We get Net Primary Productivity (NPP) on removing respiratory losses (R) from GPP. Nature contributes various factors (biotic and abiotic) to improve the GPP. In other terms, nature tends to increase GPP.
With various agricultural practices, human beings try to increase the NPP. For instance – consider a fruit which is left on the tree for a longer time. Such a fruit will contribute to higher respiratory losses (R). Over the millenniums, human beings have come up with better agricultural practices to reduce respiratory losses.