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Ecological threshold is the point at which a relatively small change or disturbance in external conditions causes a rapid change in an ecosystem.When an ecological threshold has been passed, the ecosystem may no longer be able to return to its state by means of its inherent resilience.
An ecosystem, originally defined by Tansley (1935), is a biotic community (or biocenosis) along with its physical environment (or biotope).In ecological studies, biocenosis is the emphasis on relationships between species in an area.
An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system that environments and their organisms form through their interaction. [2]: 458 The biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Ecosystems are controlled by external and internal factors.
Ecophysiology (from Greek οἶκος, oikos, "house(hold)"; φύσις, physis, "nature, origin"; and -λογία, -logia), environmental physiology or physiological ecology is a biological discipline that studies the response of an organism's physiology to environmental conditions.
Much variation in the flow of energy is found within each type of ecosystem, creating a challenge in identifying variation between ecosystem types. In a general sense, the flow of energy is a function of primary productivity with temperature, water availability, and light availability . [ 25 ]
The relationship between ecosystem complexity and stability is a major topic of interest in ecology.Use of ecological networks makes it possible to analyze the effects of the network properties described above on the stability of an ecosystem.
The ecological efficiency of an ecosystem is as a result often no better than an approximation. On the other hand, an approximation may be enough for most ecosystems, where it is important not to get an exact measure of efficiency, but rather a general idea of how energy is moving through its trophic levels .
The pyramid of energy represents how much energy, initially from the sun, is retained or stored in the form of new biomass at each trophic level in an ecosystem. Typically, about 10% of the energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next, thus preventing a large number of trophic levels.