Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Because herbivores prefer nutritionally dense plants and avoid plants or plant parts with defense structures, a greater amount of plant matter is left unconsumed within the ecosystem. [27] Herbivore avoidance of low-quality plant matter may be why terrestrial systems exhibit weaker top-down control on the flow of energy.
The balance of nature, also known as ecological balance, is a theory that proposes that ecological systems are usually in a stable equilibrium or homeostasis, which is to say that a small change (the size of a particular population, for example) will be corrected by some negative feedback that will bring the parameter back to its original "point of balance" with the rest of the system.
Bioenergetics is a field in biochemistry and cell biology that concerns energy flow through living systems. [1] This is an active area of biological research that includes the study of the transformation of energy in living organisms and the study of thousands of different cellular processes such as cellular respiration and the many other metabolic and enzymatic processes that lead to ...
In addition to observational studies of animal behavior, and quantification of animal stomach contents, trophic level can be quantified through stable isotope analysis of animal tissues such as muscle, skin, hair, bone collagen. This is because there is a consistent increase in the nitrogen isotopic composition at each trophic level caused by ...
Biological thermodynamics (Thermodynamics of biological systems) is a science that explains the nature and general laws of thermodynamic processes occurring in living organisms as nonequilibrium thermodynamic systems that convert the energy of the Sun and food into other types of energy. The nonequilibrium thermodynamic state of living ...
The remainder is consumed by animals while still alive and enters the plant-based trophic system. After plants and animals die, the organic matter contained in them enters the detritus-based trophic system. [15] Ecosystem respiration is the sum of respiration by all living organisms (plants, animals, and decomposers) in the ecosystem. [16]
Ecosystems return this carbon through animal respiration, and plant respiration. [4] This constant cycle of carbon through the system is not the only element being transferred. In animal and plant respiration these living beings take in glucose and oxygen while emitting energy, carbon dioxide, and water as waste.
Energy intake is measured by the amount of calories consumed from food and fluids. [1] Energy intake is modulated by hunger, which is primarily regulated by the hypothalamus, [1] and choice, which is determined by the sets of brain structures that are responsible for stimulus control (i.e., operant conditioning and classical conditioning) and cognitive control of eating behavior.