Related topics: climate change



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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A view of a lowland rainforest on Sumatra, Indonesia

Forests could flip from sink to source of CO2: study

Space & Earth / Environment

created Apr 17, 2009 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (78) | comments 12

Forests that today soak up a quarter of carbon pollution spewed into the atmosphere could soon become a net source of CO2 if Earth's surface warms by another two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), cautions ...


In the warming West, climate most significant factor in fanning wildfires' flames

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jun 26, 2009 | popularity 4.6 / 5 (37) | comments 2

The recent increase in area burned by wildfires in the Western United States is a product not of higher temperatures or longer fire seasons alone, but a complex relationship between climate and fuels that varies among different ...


World's water ecosystems under threat

Space & Earth / Environment

created Sep 11, 2008 | popularity 4 / 5 (24) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Human activities such as fishing and water use are over-riding the effects of global warming on the ecosystems that support the world’s water and fish supplies, experts have revealed.


algae

Killer algae a key player in mass extinctions

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 19, 2009 | popularity 4.4 / 5 (17) | comments 4

Algae, not asteroids, were the key to the end of the dinosaurs, say two Clemson University researchers. Geologist James W. Castle and ecotoxicologist John H. Rodgers have published findings that toxin producing ...


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 ...


Loss of coastal seagrass habitat accelerating globally

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jun 29, 2009 | popularity 4.5 / 5 (16) | comments 2

An international team of scientists warns that accelerating losses of seagrasses across the globe threaten the immediate health and long-term sustainability of coastal ecosystems. The team has compiled and analyzed the first ...


Desert damage: the dark side of solar power?

Space & Earth / Environment

created Mar 30, 2009 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (19) | comments 40

Thousands of acres of solar panels could spring up across California's Mojave Desert like a crop of crystal mushrooms -- a new kind of gold rush meant to bring powerful environmental benefits.


A new day dawned fast: Recovery from marine mass extinction happened much faster than thought

A new day dawned fast: Recovery from marine mass extinction happened much faster than thought

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Oct 02, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (14) | comments 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- In 1979, Luis Alvarez and his collaborators stunned the world with their discovery that an asteroid impact 65 million years ago probably killed off the dinosaurs and much of the the world's ...


Members of Greenpeace protest in Mexico City

Risky schemes may be only hope for cooling planet: scientists

Space & Earth / Environment

created Sep 01, 2009 | popularity 2.5 / 5 (22) | comments 18

Sci-fi proposals to cool the planet are laden with risk but may be Earth's only hope if politicians fail to tackle global warming, scientists said on Tuesday in their biggest evaluation to date of "geo-engineering" ...


Steam billows from the cooling towers at a nuclear power generating station in Byron

Tropical zone expanding due to climate change: study

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jul 06, 2009 | popularity 3.2 / 5 (15) | comments 2

Climate change is rapidly expanding the size of the world's tropical zone, threatening to bring disease and drought to heavily populated areas, an Australian study has found.


Dramatic expansion of dead zones in the oceans

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 25, 2009 | popularity 3.1 / 5 (15) | comments 19

Unchecked global warming would leave ocean dwellers gasping for breath. Dead zones are low-oxygen areas in the ocean where higher life forms such as fish, crabs and clams are not able to live. In shallow coastal regions, ...


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. ...


Fish guts explain marine carbon cycle mystery

Space & Earth / Earth Sciences

created Jan 15, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (9) | comments 1

Research published today reveals the major influence of fish on maintaining the delicate pH balance of our oceans, vital for the health of coral reefs and other marine life.


Socompa Volcano

Earth's highest known microbial systems fueled by volcanic gases

Biology / Cell & Microbiology

created Mar 03, 2009 | popularity 4.8 / 5 (9) | comments 0

Gases rising from deep within the Earth are fueling the world's highest-known microbial ecosystems, which have been detected near the rim of the 19,850-foot-high Socompa volcano in the Andes by a University ...


Humans 'damaging the oceans': research

Space & Earth / Environment

created Jul 29, 2009 | popularity 4.2 / 5 (10) | comments 14

Mounting evidence that human activity is changing the world's oceans in profound and damaging ways is outlined in a new scientific discussion paper released today.