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For example, ecosystems can be quite different if situated in a small depression on the landscape, versus one present on an adjacent steep hillside. [ 9 ] : 39 [ 10 ] : 66 Other external factors that play an important role in ecosystem functioning include time and potential biota , the organisms that are present in a region and could ...
Parasitism is a relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or in another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life. [20] The parasite either feeds on the host, or, in the case of intestinal parasites, consumes some of its food.
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.
Ecosystems may be habitats within biomes that form an integrated whole and a dynamically responsive system having both physical and biological complexes. Ecosystem ecology is the science of determining the fluxes of materials (e.g. carbon, phosphorus) between different pools (e.g., tree biomass, soil organic material).
Despite a different definition between mutualism and symbiosis, they have been largely used interchangeably in the past, and confusion on their use has persisted. [6] Mutualism plays a key part in ecology and evolution. For example, mutualistic interactions are vital for terrestrial ecosystem function as:
Ecosystem services are ecologically mediated functional processes essential to sustaining healthy human societies. [6] Water provision and filtration, production of biomass in forestry, agriculture, and fisheries, and removal of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO 2) from the atmosphere are examples of ecosystem services essential to public health and economic opportunity.
The food web is a simplified illustration of the various methods of feeding that link an ecosystem into a unified system of exchange. There are different kinds of consumer–resource interactions that can be roughly divided into herbivory, carnivory, scavenging, and parasitism.
The feeding relationships between different species in a given ecosystem. Also called a food chain, food network, or trophic social network. weed A plant growing where it is not wanted, often at a high rate of dispersal. wetland A type of ecosystem consisting of land permanently or seasonally saturated with water; the habitat of aquatic plants ...