BILD 3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Nitrogen Fixation, Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest, Nitrogen Cycle
Document Summary
Trophic efficiencies have important implications for community structure. Trophic efficiencies have important implications for human population: our agriculture system could feed many more people if we ate more plants and less meat: consider becoming a meat reductionist ! Ecosystem ecology ii: overview of nutrient cycling, water cycle, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, phosphorus cycle. How do nutrients stay in or flow through landscapes: comparisons of rainfall (inputs) and stream water (outputs) can provide detailed information about nutrient cycling. Inputs > outputs : nutrients accumulate in the ecosystem. Raining gauges provide data on nutrient inputs: hubbard brook experimental forest example, the machines shown are used to estimate the amount of rain water and minerals added to the environment. Carbon cycle: carbon-cycling processes, photosynthesis and respiration, ocean-atmosphere exchange. Biotic carbon exchange: photosynthesis is an assimilatory process: incorporates inorganic forms of elements into organic forms, respiration (oxidation of carbon) is a dissimilatory process: transforms organic forms of elements into inorganic forms.
