Ecosystem

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An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants, animals and micro-organisms (biotic factors) in an area functioning together with all of the physical (abiotic) factors of the environment. An ecosystem is a unit of interdependent organisms which share the same habitat. Ecosystems usually form a number of food webs which show the interdependence of the organisms within the ecosystem.

For more information about Ecosystem, read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.


News tagged with ecosystems

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Climate experts debate strategies for reducing atmospheric carbon and future warming

Climate experts debate strategies for reducing atmospheric carbon and future warming

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 25, 2009 | popularity 2.7 / 5 (10) | comments 16

(PhysOrg.com) -- Reducing carbon dioxide to safe levels may require extracting carbon from the air, says Cornell climate researcher.


Researchers Establish Common Seasonal Patterns Among Bacterial Communities in Arctic Rivers

Researchers Establish Common Seasonal Patterns Among Bacterial Communities in Arctic Rivers

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Nov 24, 2009 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- New research on bacterial communities throughout six large Arctic river ecosystems reveals predictable temporal patterns, suggesting that scientists could use these communities as markers ...


Beyond sunlight: Explorers census 17,650 ocean species between edge of darkness and black abyss

Beyond sunlight: Explorers census 17,650 ocean species between edge of darkness and black abyss (w/ Video)

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 22, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (15) | comments 0

Census of Marine Life scientists have inventoried an astonishing abundance, diversity and distribution of deep sea species that have never known sunlight - creatures that somehow manage a living in a frigid ...


Researcher wants to tip the scales for northern lizard

Researcher wants to tip the scales for northern lizard

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 16, 2009 | popularity 2 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Armed with eyelash glue, a walking stick and a faithful horse, University of Alberta researcher Krista Fink is hoping to help Canada's most northern lizard get off the species-at-risk list.


Penguins and sea lions help produce new atlas

Penguins and sea lions help produce new atlas

Biology / Ecology

created Nov 16, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Recording hundreds of thousands of individual uplinks from satellite transmitters fitted on penguins, albatrosses, sea lions, and other marine animals, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and BirdLife ...


How much is nature worth?

How much is nature worth?

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 13, 2009 | popularity 2 / 5 (4) | comments 1

How much is nature worth? £1 billion? £100 billion? £1 trillion? The loss of our forests and biodiversity in general could cost us between £1.2-2.8 trillion a year, according to Pavan Sukhdev, who is giving ...


Sponges recycle carbon to give life to coral reefs

Biology / Plants & Animals

created Nov 13, 2009 | popularity 4.3 / 5 (4) | comments 1

Coral reefs support some of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet, yet they thrive in a marine desert. So how do reefs sustain their thriving populations?


Climate Change, Nitrogen Loss Threaten Plant Life in Arid Desert Soils

Climate Change, Nitrogen Loss Threaten Plant Life in Arid Desert Soils

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 05, 2009 | popularity 3 / 5 (9) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- In the Mojave Desert winds howl across this hottest place in North America, blowing sands across Death Valley and through empty ghost towns, swirling across treeless land for hundreds of miles. ...


Timber harvest impacts amphibians differently during life stages

Timber harvest impacts amphibians differently during life stages

Biology / Ecology

created Nov 03, 2009 | popularity 2.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Frogs are croaking in clear-cut forests, but not exactly in their traditional manner. University of Missouri researchers found that removing all of the trees from a section of the forest had a negative effect ...


Over 1,000 fish species 'threatened with extinction'

Biology / Ecology

created Nov 03, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

More than 1,000 freshwater fish species are threatened with extinction, reflecting the strain on global water resources, an updated global "Red List" of endangered species showed Tuesday.


Data point to some improvements in China's environment

Space & Earth / Environment

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity 3.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

The rapid growth of China's forests over the past 20 years makes them the fastest growing forest resources in the world, according to an assessment published in the November issue of BioScience.


Forest clearances sealed ancient civilisation's downfall

Forest clearances sealed ancient civilisation's downfall

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity 4.9 / 5 (9) | comments 6

(PhysOrg.com) -- An ancient South American civilisation which disappeared around 1,500 years ago helped to cause its own demise by damaging the fragile ecosystem that held it in place, a study has found. ...


Robot fish could monitor water quality

Robot fish could monitor water quality

Electronics / Robotics

created Nov 02, 2009 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 2

Nature inspires technology for an engineer and an ecologist teamed up at Michigan State University. They're developing robots that use advanced materials to swim like fish to probe underwater environments.


Model microbial community for studying expanding dead zones characterized

Model microbial community for studying expanding dead zones characterized

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 22, 2009 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Among the many changes in the ocean is the expansion of oxygen-deficient or oxygen minimum zones (OMZs), also known as dead zones, which affect the processes by which carbon is captured and sequestered on ...


Oases for Life on the Mid-Caymen Rise

Oases for Life on the Mid-Caymen Rise

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 21, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (2) | comments 0

A team of oceanographers and astrobiologists is currently exploring one of the deepest points in the Caribbean Sea. Follow their blog as they search for life in this extreme seafloor environment.