Aquaponics Post #2
Aquaponics Energy Systems Diagram
- We predict that the plants will take in more energy than they’ll produce. The reason is because they need a substantial amount of the energy they get to grow, and this will take most of the energy absorbed.
- We predict that the goldfish will also take in more energy than they will produce. This is due to the fact that a fraction of the energy that they consume must be used up in their own mechanical processes.
- In all steps of the energy transfer, a fraction of the energy will be lost as metabolic heat. Some energy will be lost because the plants and fish need to keep a fraction for their own processes. When the energy eventually leaves the producers and consumers, total energy will be lost due to these mechanical processes.
- We can estimate the amount of energy lost by the size of fish and plants. If too much energy is lost, the rate of growth will decrease; plants will not be able to undergo processes such as cellular respiration and photosynthesis, and the fish’s excrement will not contain as much nutrients as it should.