Ecosystems and Ecology

What is a super organism?

"superorganism" concept, which implied that communities of organisms formed something akin to a higher-level, more complex organism—a mistaken conception that formed a theoretical barrier to scientific research in ecology.

What is an ecosystem?

An ecosystem is a community of organisms interacting with each other and with their environment such that energy is exchanged and system-level processes, such as the cycling of elements, emerge. interactions between ecosystem components are as much a part of the definition of ecosystems as their constituent organisms, matter and energy.

At what level is an ecosystem?

As such, ecosystems are a level above that of the ecological community (organisms of different species interacting with each other) but are at a level below, or equal to, biomes and the biosphere. Essentially, biomes are regional ecosystems, and the biosphere is the largest of all possible ecosystems.

what is an ecosystem's function?

By definition, ecosystems use energy and cycle matter, and these processes also define the basic ecosystem functions.

What is ecology?

Ecology is the study of environmental systems, or as it is sometimes called, the economy of nature. "Environmental" usually means relating to the natural, versus human-made world; the "systems" means that ecology is, by its very nature, not interested in just the components of nature individually but especially in how the parts interact. a way of looking at the world which emphasizes the assessment and understanding of how the pieces fit together, how each influences and is influenced by the other pieces and how the whole operates in ways not really predictable from the pieces.

How is ecology considered?

Ecology is usually considered from the perspective of the specific geographic environment that is being studied at the moment: tropical rain forest, temperate grassland, arctic tundra, benthic marine, the entire biosphere, and so on. The subject matter of ecology is the entire natural world, including both the living and the non living parts. Biogeography focuses on the observed distribution of plants and animals and the reasons behind it. More recently ecology has included increasingly the human-dominated world of agriculture, grazing lands for domestic animals, cities, and even industrial parks. Industrial ecology is a discipline that has recently been developed, especially in Europe, where the objective is to follow the energy and material use throughout the process of, e.g., making an automobile with the objective of attempting to improve the material and energy efficiency of manufacturing.

What is biogeochemical cycling?

Energy input to ecosystems drives the flow of matter between organisms and the environment in a process known as biogeochemical cycling. defined by the exchange of matter between organisms and their environment, they are classic examples of ecosystem-level proceses. carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur and other elements

New research on ecosystems?

Examples of cutting edge ecosystem research are the Carnegie Airborne Observatory—an aerial remote sensing system capably of precisely mapping ecosystem carbon and species diversity, and the development of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), a continental-scale research platform for discovering and understanding the impacts of climate change, land-use change, and invasive species on ecosystems.

Ecosystems and carbon?

Fixed organic carbon in plants then becomes food for consumers and decomposers, who degrade the carbon to forms with lower energy, and ultimately releasing the carbon fixed by photosynthesis back into carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, producing the global carbon cycle

Experiments on ecosystems?

For example, small- and meso-scale ecosystems containing a significant set of interacting organisms and their environment may be created in the laboratory, or in enclosures in the field. There are also methods for excluding organisms or altering environmental conditions in the field, such as the addition of nutrients and artificially enhancing carbon dioxide concentrations, temperature or moisture.

Who came up with ecosystems

Roy Clapham Arthur Tansley

Who study ecosystems?

Scientists who study entire ecosystems are generally called systems ecologists. However, most ecologists use the ecosystem concept and make measurements on ecosystem properties even if their work focuses on a single species or population.

Ecosystems and nitrogen?

The biogeochemical cycling of nitrogen also uses energy, as bacteria fix nitrogen gas from the atmosphere into reactive forms useful for living organisms using energy obtained from organic materials and ultimately from plants and the sun.

What are trophic interactions?

These interactions among producers and the organisms that consume and decompose them are called trophic interactions plants making oxygen and decomposers break it down into inorganic parts food chain

What is ecological climax?

a "final", or "equilibrium" type of community or ecosystem arising under specific environmental conditions

4 reasons to study ecolgoy

first, since all of us live to some degree in a natural or at least partly natural ecosystem, then considerable pleasure can be derived by studying the environment around us. Love art Second, human economies are in large part based on the exploitation and management of nature. Applied ecology is used every day in forestry, fisheries, range management, agriculture, and so on to provide us with the food and fiber we need. For example, in Argentina in many circles there is no difference between ecology and agriculture, which is essentially the ecology of crops and pastures. Third, human societies can often be understood very clearly from an ecological perspectives as we study, for example, the population dynamics (demography) of our own species, the food and fossil energy flowing through our society. Fourth, humans appear to be changing aspects of the global environment in many ways. Ecology can be very useful to help us understand what these changes are, what the implications might be for various ecosystems, and how we might intervene in either human economies or in nature to try to mitigate or otherwise alter these changes. Harm.

Classic ecology questions

how much is the photosynthesis of a hectare of land? How many animals of what types might that photosynthesis be able to support as a base for their food resources? How many species might "divide up" the land or food resources available? How do the species present change as the physical conditions change, for example as one ascends a mountain? What is the proportion of food that is passed on from each food or "trophic" level to the next? What are the mechanisms that control the populations, communities and ecosystems in some area? How are human activities impacting these natural systems?

Ecosystems and seasons?

in response to changes in solar irradiation, causing fluctuations in primary productivity and varying the influx of energy from photosynthesis and the fixation of carbon dioxide into organic materials over the year, driving remarkable annual variability in the carbon cycle—the largest of the global biogeochemical cycles.

Observation of ecosystems?

include sampling and measurement of soils and vegetation, characterization of community structure and biodiversity, and the use of instruments for observing gas exchange and the fluxes of nutrients and water.

What is in an ecosystem?

living organisms, the dead organic matter produced by them, the abiotic environment within which the organisms live and exchange elements (soils, water, atmosphere), and the interactions between these components. However, all ecosystems must include both biotic and abiotic components, their interactions, and some source of energy. The simplest (and least representative) of ecosystems might therefore contain just a single living plant (biotic component) within a small terrarium exposed to light to which a water solution containing essential nutrients for plant growth has been added (abiotic environment). The other extreme would be the biosphere, which comprises the totality of Earth's organisms and their interactions with each other and the earth systems (abiotic environment). And of course, most ecosystems fall somewhere in between these extremes of complexity.

Biotic

living plants for example resulting from living things

Abiotic

nutrients not deriving from living organisms

levels of an ecosystem

organism- single living thing population- group of one single species community- group of multiple species interacting with each other ecosystems- serving as the level of biological organization in which organisms interact simultaneously with each other and with their environment. biome- Biomes organize the biological communities of the earth based on similarities in the dominant vegetation, climate, geographic location, and other characteristics. Aspects of the physical environment such as precipitation, temperature, and water depth, have a strong influence on the traits of species living in that natural environment, and thus biological communities experiencing similar environmental conditions often contain species that have evolved similar characteristics. (regional ecosystems) biosphere- The biosphere is the biological component of earth systems, which also include the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and other "spheres" (e.g. cryosphere, anthrosphere, etc.). The biosphere includes all living organisms on earth, together with the dead organic matter produced by them. (largest possible ecosystem)

4 categories of ecology

physiological ecology, having to do with the response of single species to environmental conditions such as temperature or light; population ecology, usually focusing on the abundance and distribution of individual species and the factors that cause such distribution; community ecology, having to do with the number of species found at given location and their interactions; and ecosystems ecology, having to do with the structure and function of the entire suite of microbes, plants, and animals, and their abiotic environment, and how the parts interact to generate the whole. This branch of ecology often focuses on the energy and nutrient flows of ecosystems, and when this approach is combined with computer analysis and simulation we often call it systems ecology. ecosystems ecology, having to do with the structure and function of the entire suite of microbes, plants, and animals, and their abiotic environment, and how the parts interact to generate the whole under that is... Evolutionary ecology, which may operate at any of these levels but most commonly at the physiological or population level, is a rich and dynamic area of ecology focusing on attempting to understand how natural selection developed the structure and function of the organisms and ecosystems at any of these levels.

What is an open system?

requiring a net flow of energy to persist over time

applied ecology

takes what is found from one or both of these approaches and uses it to protect or manage nature in some way.

Can a single ecosystem be defined 100%?

unlike organisms or energy, ecosystems are inherently conceptual, in that different observers may legitimately define their boundaries and components differently.

theoretical ecology

which attempts to derive or apply theoretical or sometimes mathematical reasons and generalities for what is observed in nature

empirical ecology

which is concerned principally with measurement