10
votes
What is the non-local impact of a large-scale destruction of coral reefs?
Disclaimer: the question is too broad and speculative to some extent, and thus less likely to get complete answer (at least in a single post).
As is already known, thousands (or millions) of species ...
- 14.1k
8
votes
Accepted
At what temporal scales do forest structures change?
This question is too broad. What type of temperate forest?
The European Environment Agency recognized dozens of temperate forest types:
...
- 30.3k
7
votes
Accepted
Nutrient limitation in terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems
The traditional explanation for this is that nitrogen compounds are more mobile than phosphorus compounds. As a result, nitrogen is more likely to flow through terrestrial ecosystems and accumulate in ...
- 176
6
votes
Accepted
What insect/invertebrate species evolves fastest?
Drosophila melanogaster. (fruit-fly, pomice-fly)
Image, public domain, via Wikipedia 2022.
Development time is under ideal conditions 8.5 days (at 25 Celsius, 77 Fahrenheit), the females produce ...
- 1,987
5
votes
Accepted
How can sodium and potassium from burned organic matter (ashes) reenter the ecosystem?
Wood ash is commonly used as a fertilizer. It acts this way in natural burning ecosystems also, where the ash from burned plants fertilizes the growth of new plants and those that survive the ...
- 46.5k
5
votes
Accepted
Are there any sustained efforts to model existing ecosystems?
Such a model would require a fairly detailed and complete biological inventory as well as detailed knowledge of the species' interactions, and a detailed map of the physical and chemical makeup of the ...
- 8,326
4
votes
Does nature have a mechanism to turn charcoal back to usable carbon?
Short answer - not really. Charcoal as almost pure carbon is fairly inert, not readily available and can remain in the environment almost indefinitely. This is evidenced by charcoal in rocks from the ...
- 12.9k
3
votes
does more biomass mean more energy?
tl;dr I think you're right and your textbook is wrong. It would be interesting to know (a) what textbook this is (maybe it's the same as the one I quote below?) and (b) what your teacher says if you ...
- 5,504
3
votes
Are there any sustained efforts to model existing ecosystems?
Depending on how you define "model an ecosystem" the answer is somewhere on the spectrum from "yes, it's routine" to "no, that's impossible."
Let's start with the ...
- 6,997
3
votes
What are the negative consequences of a narrowed biodiversity to the planet?
From an ecological sense, cycles of living beings are intertwined. Breaking cycles affects life being able to live, reproduce, and die in a manageable way. Insects, animals, and plants help feed each ...
- 5,590
3
votes
Accepted
The effect of depth on net primary production in aquatic ecosystems
After a quick glance at the book "Light and Photosynthesis in Aquatic Ecosystems" by Kirk (2010), I think that the cause for the productivity dip towards the surface partially lies in photoinhibition, ...
- 16.8k
3
votes
Accepted
What is meant by increase in information embodied in the system?
Table 1 on the next page (p. 36) lists a number of properties for each of the three "growth forms".
For information, properties include:
Life history types
Diversity (taxonomic & ecological)
...
- 16.8k
3
votes
Accepted
Predator prey interaction
I disagree with GForce's explanation; the meaning is not that growth of prey populations causes instability in predator species.
The sentence is merely saying that without predation, prey population ...
- 16.1k
3
votes
What is a (preferably) flying carnivorous insect that hunts adult fruit flies at a rate that doesn't threaten extinction?
Biotic fruit fly pathogens / predators.
You don't need every single one for a basic project. Here are 2 types.
Parasitoid wasps
Parasitoid wasps lay eggs in larva.
Drosophila in the wild suffers ...
- 2,964
2
votes
Accepted
What are the branches of system ecology?
What are the branches of system ecology that scientists research in nowadays? Or what can system ecology can applied to, or be used?
This field is often referred to as systems ecology or ecosystem ...
- 172
2
votes
What is the contribution of the cockroach to the ecological environment?
You must read this article:
“Most cockroaches feed on decaying organic matter, which traps a lot
of nitrogen,” Kambhampati said. “Cockroach feeding has the effect of
releasing that nitrogen (in ...
- 121
2
votes
Accepted
How much carbon does a forest contain?
There are some well established methods for this. For example, estimating forest C stocks and fluxes is done for national C accounts which are used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (...
- 138
2
votes
How much carbon does a forest contain?
This question is very broad and this would require a lot of calculations, I will focus on the carbon dioxide in the trees, hopefully some other users can add details in respect to the organism and ...
- 2,410
2
votes
Are plants actual oxygen factories?
All green plants do Photosynthesis as well as Respiration.
Plants respire during the day and night, but they only photosynthesis during the day when it is light:
there is equations for aerobic ...
- 384
2
votes
What prevents predator overpopulation?
This boils down to one main reason: competition.
Animals, in general, don’t like sharing resources with direct competitors, but this violence over food, territory, and in the case of intraspecific ...
- 21
2
votes
Comparing the amount of domestic animals and wild animals?
And how to estimate the amount approximately?
You cannot. Most of the earth is water, and fauna diversity is highest in water. We are still tagging and tracking the movement and reproduction cycles ...
- 1,135
2
votes
Accepted
What does differential consumption mean?
Second, differential consumption of plant growth forms can enforce changes in the composition of vegetation and thereby alter the type and arrangement of fuel.
This sentence means that herbivores eat ...
- 46.5k
2
votes
Accepted
What does the difference between GPP - NPP represent?
What does the difference between GPP - NPP represent?
The answer is in your overview: it's plant respiration.
Is the value of 800 equal to respiration?
That is the unavoidable consequence of the ...
- 3,253
2
votes
Population numbers in the presence of restricted resources
If we express your equations in their simplest form (by substituting $R/X(t)$ for $\alpha(t)$) we get
$$
\dot X = (\beta_0 R/\rho) - (\delta_0 \rho/R) X^2
$$
or
$$
(\dot X)/X = \dot{(\log X)} = \frac{(...
- 5,504
1
vote
Could the problem of overfishing be solved by throwing fertilized fish eggs at the right place and deepness into the sea?
Arguably, there's an easy answer to this one: "No!" As Roger points out, there are many complicating factors implicit in your question, but I can't think of any fish species off the top of ...
- 19
1
vote
Could the problem of overfishing be solved by throwing fertilized fish eggs at the right place and deepness into the sea?
The answer is a lot more complex than simple yes or no: it depends on the environment, the type of fish in question, the aspects of fishing, etc. Just to list a few points:
availability of food, ...
- 3,862
1
vote
Which trophic level has the highest population in a food chain?
The concept of a trophic "level" really only applies within the category of consumers (and even there it's only a rough approximation).
This is because some consumers eat producers (e.g., ...
- 6,997
1
vote
Accepted
What are examples of successful novel ecosystem integration?
I am still not 100% sure of what the intent is here, but I think that you should look into community assembly rules. The basic (not universally or even generally accepted) idea is that there is some ...
- 10.5k
1
vote
Failed attempts at changing ecosystem in order to preserve it?
Perhaps not quite what you had in mind, but it seems like the introduction of the mongoose into Hawaii is close. In the late 19th century sugar planters introduced mongooses into Hawaii in an attempt ...
- 3,572
1
vote
What prevents predator overpopulation?
What you are missing is that not all prey are equally easy to catch. The old, sick animals living in exposed places are much easier to catch than animals that are young, healthy and living in well-...
- 2,310
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