Biodiversity Conservation and Ecosystem Management

Ecology and Biodiversity Conservation

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Ecosystem functioning reflects the collective life activities of plants, animals, and microbes and the effects these activities feeding, growing, moving, excreting waste, etc. have on the physical and chemical conditions of their environment. (Note that functioning means showing activity and does not imply that organisms perform purposeful roles in ecosystem-level processes.) A functioning ecosystem is one that exhibits biological and chemical activities characteristic for its type. Ecologists abstract the essential features of an ecosystem into two compartments, the biotic and the abiotic. The biotic compartment consists of the community of species, which can be divided functionally into plant producers, the consumers that feed on producers and on each other, and the decomposers. The abiotic compartment consists of organic and inorganic nutrient pools. Energy and materials move between these two compartments, as well as into and out of the system. Comparing different ecosystems is likely to yield an unclear result because the response to variations in biodiversity cannot easily be distinguished from responses caused by variations in environmental and other factors. [biodiversity conferences USA] explained very well about Biodiversity & Ecosystem.