Esrm Quiz 3

· Sustainability is difficult to manage for especially since we don’t know how the parts are put together · but we know the need to understand the connections and not just the parts to maintain ecosystem services · so therefore the parts of clam chowder that make the soup are essential to know how to make clam chowder just like you have to know the connections not just the parts to how the ecosystem works

· Forest is composed of structures and functions · the structures and functions are interconnected · but we mainly focus on structures because we can see them and not functions which links or connects the structures

· Beginning: photosynthesis · Plants absorb carbon form the atmosphere and turn it into complex carbohydrates (energy, food) · Almost all other organisms are dependent upon consuming these complex cars produced by plants · The carbon cycle is unbalanced when connections are disrupted

· Decomposers break down complex carbon molecules (photosynthesis) back into carbon atoms · They use the complex material as a food source · If we lost decomposers, humans would be standing in a mountain of waste materials and dead plants · As a result plants would not be able to access the nutrients that are tied up in the dead plant tissues

· mutualism(positive interaction via symbiosis), parasitism (negative interaction via symbiosis) · if these conectivities are not reformed when they are broken the ecosystem will not function normally and there can be a loss of ecosystem services · So if there is an imbalance in predator-prey relationship than the population crashes, ecosystem degradation, or human disease outbreaks occur

· Why: beetle benefits and tree suffers · Interaction: beetle severs phloem tubes to consume sugars and thus starve their host/victim · Spread: o Drought: decreases pressure in resin tubes (their best defense against o Global warming: changes precipitation and causes droughts o Fire suppression: increases tree density and competition for water and other resources

· Soil food web: community of organisms living all or part of their lies in the soil · A food web diagram shows a series of conversions represented by arrow of energy and nutrients as one organism eats another · All food webs are fueled by the primary producers · Most other soil organisms get energy and cabon by consuming the organic compounds found in plants other organisms and waste by products · A few bacteria called chemoautotrophs get energy from nitrogen, sulfur or iron compounds rather than carbon compounds · When organisms decompose complex materials or consume other organisms nutrients are released

· This story highlights that we do not understand and or know all the links and factors that make up an ecosystem · Harriet loved nature but loving nature isn’t same as understanding it · She vilified ‘snake’ but romanticized ‘mouse’. Caught virus form mouse and died

· If we simplify an ecosystem and lose sight of one or more connections, some species will not survive · All species are dependent on another part of the ecosystem · Can inadvertently cause the ecosystem to be less healthy or imbalanced so that it may not recover after a disturbance

· Nature is better at keeping the connections that exist in ecosystems even after a major disturbance

· Definition: mutualistic relationship between vascular plants and fungi roots · Fungus gains carbon from the tree and tree is supplied with NPK · Obligate relationships means that each species cannot exist without the other · In nutrient poor environments the plants are totally dependent on the fungus to grow and it is a food source as a mushroom for many small mammals that live in the forest · Mushroom hunting

· Animals eat their reproductive parts and get nutrients out of them · Sodium, healthy nervous system · Mycorrhizas don’t need sodium

· Mycorrhizas relationships increase the area of the soil that is mined for nutrients – increase nutrients when there are few available in the soil · Tree roots grow out of the ground and up another tree to get the nutrients from the other tree’s stem flow

· In Michigan, one fungus covered 30 acres of land · In WA, one fungus covered more than a thousand hectares of forest soil · In increases the ability of the fungus to mine the soil for nutrients and form more

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