Questions tagged [ecology]

40 questions
8
votes
1 answer

Should a primary consumer always be a herbivore?

BBC Bitesize defines primary consumers as the following, implying that (if I've interpreted this correctly) the term includes any animal that feeds on the primary producer — plants: This refers to organisms that eat the producer. Most are…
Shane
  • 321
  • 1
  • 9
3
votes
0 answers

Methods in researching loss of natural habitat

What methods are there to research loss of natural habitat? I know of supervised image classification in GIS but what other methods are commonly used in research?
Rudolf O
  • 51
  • 1
2
votes
1 answer

What exactly are singular biomes as units?

So let's take the tropical rainforests of Earth for an example. The Congo, Amazon, Indonesia, Malaysia, and wherever else it may grow. Are all these aforementioned places considered parts of one biome, the tropical rainforest? Or are the Amazon…
1
vote
1 answer

Are humans a plague?

We have: Reached a population of 8 billion Doubled greenhouse gases Extincted numerous species Filled the ocean floor with waste Contaminated the soil with petroleum derivatives Contaminated aquifers Could we be considered a plague? Do we have…
user20559
1
vote
1 answer

Why are there no snakes in New Zealand when ecosystem needs them

I was trying to understand why there are no snakes in New Zealand and at same time I see snakes are important for ecosystems. So my question is how New Zealand's ecosystem is surviving without snakes?
puzzled
  • 143
  • 4
1
vote
1 answer

If matter is constantly being cycled through an ecosystem, does that mean a given ecosystem has a fixed mass?

Due to the food chain and the cycle of life, matter is constantly moved between plants, primary consumers, secondary consumers, and so on, until the consumers die, giving matter they consumed back to the ecosystem via dung and corpses. This should…
1
vote
1 answer

What is the technical term for the amount of water within the surrounding enviornment?

This may seem an obvious question but I am unable to understand what the technical term for the surrounding water of an environment is, specifically surrounding a person/animal within that environment. Humidity: This seems like the most obvious…
Maxmansung
  • 13
  • 2