Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Pollinator decline is the reduction in abundance of insect and other animal pollinators in many ecosystems worldwide that began being recorded at the end of the 20th century. Multiple lines of evidence exist for the reduction of wild pollinator populations at the regional level, especially within Europe and North America.
In the UK, "30 to 60% of species per order have declining ranges". Insect pollinators, "needed for 75% of all the world's food crops", appear to be "strongly declining globally in both abundance and diversity", which has been linked in Northern Europe to the decline of plant species that rely on them.
The ocean plays a key role in the water cycle as it is the source of 86% of global evaporation. [2] The water cycle involves the exchange of energy, which leads to temperature changes. When water evaporates, it takes up energy from its surroundings and cools the environment. When it condenses, it releases energy and warms the environment.
Without it plants cannot reproduce. Some plants, like dandelions, let their pollen drift in the wind, but others need help. That's where the pollinators come in.
The 2007 IPCC Fourth Assessment Report concluded that over the last three decades human-induced warming had likely had an influence on many biological systems. [25] [26] [27] The Sixth Assessment Report found that half of all species with long-term data had shifted their ranges poleward (or upward for mountain species).
When both species gain from their interaction, mutualism develops. The mutualistic link between pollinators and plants is very well illustrated. In this instance, the animal pollinator (bee, butterfly, beetle, hummingbird, etc.) receives nourishment in exchange for carrying the plants' pollen from flower to flower (usually nectar or pollen).
Ecological succession was formerly seen as an orderly progression through distinct stages, where several plant communities would replace each other in a fixed order and eventually reach a stable end point known as the climax. The climax community was sometimes referred to as the 'potential vegetation' of a site, and thought to be primarily ...
Animal migration – Avalanche – Carbon cycle – Climate change – Climate change and agriculture – Climate model – Climate oscillation – Clock of the Long Now – Ecology – El Niño/La Niña – Endometrium – Environmental geography – Global cooling – Global warming – Historical temperature record – Hydrogen cycle – Ice age – Transhumance – Milankovitch cycles ...