Define ecology and ecosystem

"No man is an island.” This saying is also true for organisms in an ecosystem. No organism exists in isolation. Individual organisms live together in an ecosystem and depend on one another. In fact, they have many different types of interactions with each other, and many of these interactions are critical for their survival. So what do these interactions look like in an ecosystem? One category of interactions describes the different ways organisms obtain their food and energy. Some organisms can make their own food, and other organisms have to get their food by eating other organisms. An organism that must obtain their nutrients by eating (consuming) other organisms is called a consumer, or a heterotroph. While there are a lot of fancy words related to the sciences, one of the great things is that many of them are based on Latin or Greek roots. For example, heterotroph becomes easier to remember when you realize that in Greek, “hetero” means “other” and “troph” means food; in other words, heterotrophs eat other organisms to get their food. They then use the energy and materials in that food to grow, reproduce and carry out all of their life activities. All animals, all fungi, and some kinds of bacteria are heterotrophs and consumers. . Some consumers are predators; they hunt, catch, kill, and eat other animals, the prey. The prey animal tries to avoid being eaten by hiding, fleeing, or defending itself using various adaptations and strategies. These could be the camouflage...

Want create site? Find Electric Current, voltage, and resistance are three of the fundamental electrical properties. Stated simply, • current: is the directed flow of charge through a conductor. • Voltage: is the force that generates the current. • Resistance: is an opposition to current that is provided by the material, component, or circuit. Electric Current, Voltage, and resistance are the three primary properties of an electrical circuit. The relationships among them are defined by the fundamental law of circuit operation, called Ohm’s law. Electric Current As you know, an outside force can break an electron free from its parent atom. In copper (and other metals), very little external force is required to generate free electrons. In fact the thermal energy (heat) present at room temperature (22 0C) can generate free electrons. The number of electrons generated varies directly with temperature. In other words, higher temperatures generate more free electrons. The motion of the free electrons in copper is random when no directing force is applied. That is, the free electrons in copper are random when no directing force is applied. That is, the free electrons move in every direction, as shown in Figure 1. Since, the free electrons are moving in every direction, this net flow of electrons in any direction is zero. Figure 1 Random electron motion in copper Figure 2 Illustrates what happens when an external force causes all of the electrons to move in the same direction. In ...

Municipality provides two types of dustbins for garbage collection. One coloured with blue colour and other with green colour. From following wastes which you will put in the which dustbin? Plastic materials, metals and glass items, wastes of plants and animals, peels of fruits and vegetables, dried leaves and twigs, remains of meat like flesh and hopes.

Greenhouse gas molecules in the atmosphere absorb light, preventing some of it from escaping the Earth. This heats up the atmosphere and raises the planet’s average temperature. February 19, 2021 What do CO 2, methane, and water vapor have in common? If your first thought was “greenhouse gases,” you’d be correct! 1 But how do these molecules actually warm our planet? We’ll start our exploration of greenhouse gases with a single carbon dioxide (CO 2) molecule. Let’s say this CO 2 molecule came from the exhaust in your car. From your tailpipe, it drifts up into the atmosphere, diffusing among the other gases. There, particles of light—photons—hit our molecule. So what happens to those photons? “Greenhouse gas molecules will absorb that light, causing the bonds between atoms to vibrate,” says Jesse Kroll, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Chemical Engineering at MIT. “This traps the energy, which would otherwise go back into space, and so has the effect of heating up the atmosphere.” Basically, the bonds between the carbon and oxygen atoms in our CO 2 molecule bend and stretch to absorb photons. (With other greenhouse gases, the molecular bonds are different, but in all cases, they absorb photons, stopping them from leaving the atmosphere.) Eventually, our CO 2 molecule will release these photons. Sometimes, the photons continue out into space. But other times, they rebound back into the Earth’s atmosphere, where their heat remains trapped. And importantly,...

Photosynthesis is critical for the existence of the vast majority of life on Earth. It is the way in which virtually all energy in the biosphere becomes available to living things. As primary producers, photosynthetic organisms form the base of Earth’s food webs and are consumed directly or indirectly by all higher life-forms. Additionally, almost all the prokaryoteLearn more about prokaryotes. photosynthesis, the process by which green It would be impossible to overestimate the importance of photosynthesis in the maintenance of life on Energy produced by photosynthesis carried out by plants millions of years ago is responsible for the Requirements for food, materials, and energy in a world where Pop Quiz: 13 Things to Know About Photosynthesis A second Another intriguing area in the study of photosynthesis has been the discovery that certain animals are able to convert light energy into chemical energy. The emerald green sea slug ( Vaucheria litorea, an Acyrthosiphon pisum) can harness light to manufacture the energy-rich Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. General characteristics Development of the idea The study of photosynthesis began in 1771 with observations made by the English clergyman and scientist In 1782 it was demonstrated that the combustion-supporting gas (oxygen) was formed at the expense of another gas, or “fixed air,” which had been identified the year before as carbon dioxide. Gas-exchange experiments in 1804 showed...

How can you help in reducing the problem of waste disposal? Give any two methods. Solution: Following are the ways to reduce the problem of waste disposal: • 3 R’s: By following the 3 R’s one can reduce the problem of waste disposal. The 3 R’s are reduce, recycle and reuse. Reducing the usage of their own vehicles and opting for public transport can reduce air pollution. Recycling and reusing of plastics is also a way to reduce waste disposal. • Preparation of compost: All the biodegradable waste like kitchen waste, can be dumped in the compost.

Why are they so important? Carbon dioxide (CO2) is released through natural processes, like when animals breathe and during volcanic eruptions, and human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and chopping down trees. Carbon sinks are nature's way of closing the gap between what carbon is released and what is stored. Carbon is a chemical element found in all organic life. Our planet’s carbon is stored within rocks, soil, and sediment, but also in living and dead organisms, the ocean, and the atmosphere. A fixed amount of carbon between the Earth and its atmosphere is continuously cycled and reused (otherwise known as the “carbon cycle”). Carbon exists in solid, dissolved, and gaseous forms. Types of Carbon Sinks California's grasslands can sometimes act as larger carbon sinks than forests. Effy Huang / EyeEm / Getty Images The world’s main carbon sinks are soil, plants, and the ocean. Together, these environmental powerhouses naturally accumulate carbon from the atmosphere and store it for long periods of time. Soil Soils contain mineral particles, broken-down plant matter, air, water, and even living organisms. This means they retain a large amount of carbon that those materials, predominantly plants, have taken from the atmosphere previously. Soils can store this carbon, which would have otherwise returned to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide, for a very long time. Peatlands are wetlands where waterlogged conditions slow down plant decomposition to create carbon-rich so...

What powers life? How do sunlight and nutrients affect the plants we depend on? How do greenhouse gases and other contaminants degrade the interactions among the plant, animal, and microbial populations that comprise ecosystems? Ecosystem ecology is the study of these and other questions about the living and nonliving components within the environment, how these factors interact with each other, and how both natural and human-induced changes affect how they function. Understanding how ecosystems work begins with an understanding of how sunlight is converted into usable energy, the importance of nutrient cycling, and the impact mankind has on the environment. Plants convert sunlight into usable forms of energy that are carbon based. Primary and secondary production in populations can be used to determine energy flow in ecosystems. Studying the effects of atmospheric? CO 2 will have future implications for agricultural production and food quality. A new focus in ecosystem ecology has been climate change. The world is being altered at an alarming pace from greater to lesser precipitation in some areas to change in ecosystems from grasslands to desert (desertification) or forests to grasslands (increased aridity). Ecosystem ecologists are now studying the causes and effects of climate change, hoping to one day minimize our impact on the planet and preserve natural ecosystems as we know them today. To develop a rich understanding of ecosystems ecology, begin with this introduct...

He say's that the community would include all the animals in the area, but what would happen if that community of all those living things were destroyed, or even eaten by predators? Would we still have a community that would be able to help each other out, or would the predators have to kill each other just to survive until there is only one species of predators left, which would lead them to cannibalism of their own kind? First off, awesome question. But even if like you said, everything gets eaten by predators or destroyed by some apocalyptic event, you would still have ecological communities. Since a community is all the living things in a certain area, if there is even one living thing, that's technically still a community. To use your example, even if predators ate all the other animals in a community, the predators would still be there, and so would insects, and so would plants. Without other animals, it would still be a community of living things, just not a very balanced one. GMO stands for genetically modified organism and it cannot happen spontaneously in nature, however, they can thrive in nature with wildtype normal organisms as well. Moreover, people were modifying organisms (interbreeding and cultivation of plants and animals) for centuries. So genetic organisms that are part of ecosystem are part fo Ecology too. Just like abiotic factors are considered. - [Voiceover] We're now going to start looking at ecology, which is just the study of how life interacts w...

Inverted pyramid is a structure found in many ecological communities. It is characterized by a few large individuals at the top of the pyramid and many small individuals at the bottom. This structure is often the result of predation, where the large individuals are the predators and the small individuals are their prey. 6. Conclusion Inverted pyramid in ecology is when the population of a species is composed of more young individuals than old individuals. Why are ecological pyramids inverted? The pyramid of biomass is inverted in a pond ecosystem because the biomass of fishes far exceeds the biomass of phytoplanktons. This means that the producer (phytoplankton) occupies a smaller base and consumers (fish) are more in biomass. The “inverted” biomass pyramid is a reflection of the fact that, in many ecosystems, the standing crop of primary producers (i.e. phytoplankton in a pond ecosystem) is lower than the mass of the heterotrophs (i.e. fish and insects) that depend on them. This inverted pyramid is a result of the higher turnover rate of primary producers, who are constantly being consumed by heterotrophs, than those of heterotrophs. While the inverted pyramid may seem counterintuitive, it is actually a reflection of the important role that primary producers play in ecosystem functioning. What are upright and inverted pyramid You might likeWhat is a cycle in ecology? The difference between an upright and inverted pyramid is the order of the trophic levels. In an upright p...