Ecosystems and energy transfers GapFill

All living organisms belong to a particular  ecosystembiosystembiomehabitat. This can be small, such as a mouldy apple, with organisms including bacteria and fungi, or as large as a rainforest, with an incredible variety of species. Every organism is dependent on another for survival, and in some cases the survival of one species can be directly affected by the presence of another. This is called  interdependencecodominancedominanceindependence, and includes certain species of plant relying directly upon certain insects to  pollinatefeedevolveeat their flowers. This is an example of  conservationeutrophicationmutualismparasitism, where both species benefit from their relationship. Another example is  mutualismsymbiosisparasitismpredation, in which one species lives inside or on a host and feeds off it, causing harm.

All factors that can affect life in these systems can be divided into two groups: biotic and  unnaturalnon-bioticinorganicabiotic. The biotic factors can include how much  foodpressurespacewind there is for organisms, the presence of predators or  chemicalspreyfoodpathogens that can cause disease, and competition which can limit breeding and survival of organisms. The non-living factors which can affect organism survival are much more vast. For example, light intensity can affect many organisms, but most directly plants which are performing  photosynthesisrespirationmitosisdeforestation. This process can also be affected by  oxygenwatercalciumhydrogen availability and carbon dioxide levels. Temperature, the pH of soil or water and presence of pollutants can also have a direct effect on species.

All organisms have particular feeding habits. We can classify organisms into groups based on their feeding habits, particularly within a certain environment. Plants and algae make their own food, and, therefore, belong to  productiontrophicbiodiversityfeeding level one. Organisms that feed on these belong to level two, and so on up to the apex predators at the top level.

Feeding dynamics can also be presented in pyramid format, e.g. producers are shown at the bottom of the pyramid, as they contain the most  organismsfibrebiomassnuclei. Each level above is normally smaller than the previous. It is normal that each level is smaller than the previous level as  intelligenceweightenergyheat is lost between organisms at each step. Approximately only 10 % of biomass is transferred between organisms as some is either lost as waste or is not absorbed and is instead egested as faeces.

Ecologists use several techniques to study ecosystems in order to work out how abundant or distributed species are. They use  protractorsquadranglesset squaresquadrats or transects to perform these studies.