Functions of ecosystem

“The most unique feature of Earth is the existence of life, and the most extraordinary feature of life is its diversity. Approximately 9 million types of plants, animals, protists and fungi inhabit the Earth. So, too, do 7 billion people. Two decades ago, at the first Earth Summit, the vast majority of the world’s nations declared that human actions were dismantling the Earth’s ecosystems, eliminating genes, species and biological traits at an alarming rate. This observation led to the question of how such loss of biological diversity will alter the functioning of ecosystems and their ability to provide society with the goods and services needed to prosper.”– Bradley J. Cardinale Processes carried out by ecosystems provide a variety of products and services for humanity and can be divided into two primary categories: ecosystem functions and ecosystem services. Ecosystem functions can be defined by “the ecological processes that control the fluxes of energy, nutrients and organic matter through an environment”. Functions within the ecosystem that help maintain the Earth’s natural balance such as primary production, decomposition of dead matter and nutrient recycling. Ecosystem services are processes that occur within an ecosystem provide benefits to humanity. Services such as food, water and oxygen. These services can be splits into provisioning services which provide humans and other species with tangible goods such as food and water; and regulating services that help regu...

Climate change and other human-driven (anthropogenic) environmental changes will continue to cause biodiversity loss in the coming decades (Sala et al. 2000), in addition to the high rates of species extinctions already occurring worldwide (Stork 2010). Biodiversity is a term that can be used to describe biological diversity at a variety of different scales, but in this context we will focus on the description of species diversity. Species play essential roles in ecosystems, so local and global species losses could threaten the stability of the ecosystem services on which humans depend (McCann 2000). For example, plant species harness the energy of the sun to fix carbon through photosynthesis, and this essential biological process provides the base of the food chain for myriad animal consumers. At the ecosystem level, the total growth of all plant species is termed primary production, and — as we'll see in this article — communities composed of different numbers and combinations of plant species can have very different rates of primary production. This fundamental metric of ecosystem function has relevance for global food supply and for rates of climate change because primary production reflects the rate at which carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas) is removed from the atmosphere. There is currently great concern about the stability of both natural and human-managed ecosystems, particularly given the myriad global changes already occurring. Stability can be defined in several...

• Review Article • 14 September 2020 A guide to ecosystem models and their environmental applications • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6520-689X • • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-7745-0251 • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5904-7917 • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9814-1009 • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-5866-1923 • ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-7673-3716 • … • Show authors Nature Ecology & Evolution volume 4, pages 1459–1471 ( 2020) Applied ecology has traditionally approached management problems through a simplified, single-species lens. Repeated failures of single-species management have led us to a new paradigm — managing at the ecosystem level. Ecosystem management involves a complex array of interacting organisms, processes and scientific disciplines. Accounting for interactions, feedback loops and dependencies between ecosystem components is therefore fundamental to understanding and managing ecosystems. We provide an overview of the main types of ecosystem models and their uses, and discuss challenges related to modelling complex ecological systems. Existing modelling approaches typically attempt to do one or more of the following: describe and disentangle ecosystem components and interactions; make predictions about future ecosystem states; and inform decision making by comparing alternative strategies and identifying important uncertainties. Modelling ecosystems is challenging, particularly when balancing the desire to represent many components of an ecosystem with the limitations o...

Ecosystem: • An ecosystem can be visualized as a functional unit of nature, where living organisms interact among themselves and also with the surrounding physical environment. • The terrestrial ( such as grasslands) and aquatic ecosystems ( such as rivers) are the two primary types of ecosystems. • The ecosystem consists of various non-living, abiotic, and living biotic components Functions of the ecosystem: • Productivity and Energy flow • The rate of biomass production per unit area is called productivity. • The energy behavior in the ecosystem is referred to as energy flow because energy transformations are directional. • Solar energy conversion by photosynthesis is the starting point of energy flow within ecosystems. 2. Nutrient cycling • .It is the movement of matter through the system. • Gaseous cycle ( for eg, carbon cycle) • Sedimentary cycle ( for eg, the sulfur cycle) 3. Decomposition • Decomposers ( such as earthworms) break down complex organic matter into inorganic substances like carbon dioxide, water, and nutrients, and the process is called decomposition. • Fragmentation, leaching, catabolism, humification, and mineralization are all critical processes in the breakdown process. 4. Water dynamics • Water availability is one of the crucial factors for controlling species distribution in terrestrial ecosystems.