Gross Primary Production

Gross primary production for the Western Short Grasslands falls between 3.1 - 5.0 kgCm⁻²yr⁻¹. Low rainfall, warm temperatures and a lengthy growing season prevent the region from obtaining higher productivity.

Gross productivity: the rate at which an ecosystem's producers capture and store a given amount of chemical energy
Net productivity: the rate at which all the plants in an ecosystem produce net useful chemical energy
Secondary productivity: the generation of biomass of heterotrophic (consumer) organisms in a system, which is driven by the transfer of organic material between trophic levels