Question

Deer consume 10,000 kg of grass per month, and their secondary production is 2,000 kg per month. if their assimilation efficiency is 50%, what is their production efficiency?

Answer 1

Assimilation efficiency quantifies the ratio between the organism's used energy for growth and production of new cells and tissues, and others.

We let x be the amount of substance assimilated.

AE = x / 10,000

From the given, AE is equal to 0.5. Substituting,

0.5 = x/10,000
x = 5,000

Production efficiency on the other hand is the ratio of the amount of substance used for production compared to the assimilation. Mathematically,

PE = 2,000 / x = 2,000/5,000

PE = 0.4

This is equivalent to a percentage of 40%.