How ecosystems function
An ecosystem is a community of lifeforms that interact in such an optimal way that how ecosystems function(Of an ecosystem). A subset of ecosystem processes and structures, where the ecosystem does something that provides an ecosystem service of value to people. More best, is when all components (including humans and other animals) can persist and live alongside each other for the longest time possible.
Ecosystems are fuelled by the energy created by plants (primary producers) that convert the Sun’s heat energy into chemical energy but this also creates waste. Without animals, plant-based systems would make so much waste, they would collapse under the weight of their own release of massive amounts of free surplus energyThe energy of a system that is emitted as waste and is not part of ecosystem processes. There is always some free surplus energy as this creates the basis for evolution where new species exploit gaps in the ecosystem where free energy becomes available. Surplus energy can occur as a result of disruption or disturbance. When free surplus energy reaches More (which we call “pollution”).
After animals evolved, this free energy was able to be absorbed into food chains and the system stabilised. This is why pristine ecosystems have very little excess nutrientA substance that contains the raw materials for life. At a chemical level, these are contained inside compounds that are absorbed into the body and essential energy-containing molecules are extracted, so that energy can be transformed into other chemical processes that use the energy for living. More in soil or water and the carbon they process, is in harmony with the atmosphere. In other words, the animal-driven components process just as much energy as the plants waste from the Sun each day. This is important because otherwise, the production of waste energy increases a system’s chaos(Of energy and ecosystems). Ecosystems are thermodynamically driven. Disorder occurs when energy dissipates and becomes more chaotic. For example, the release of hot air into the atmosphere results in that energy is freer to disperse (maximum entropy). The opposite is true when energy is locked into biological processes, when it is stored inside molecules (minimum entropy). Stability in ecosystems occurs More, which manifests as climate change.
Ecosystems exist only because they minimise the chaos plants can create. Animals evolved because they build the ecosystem structure that is the most stable. Therefore, animals are the reason for ecosystems.
Ecosystem structures are an acute interdependency with their components, meaning the system and its wildlife cannot exist without each other. It’s this interdependency and network of processes that we call “biodiversity”.
- Therefore, plants can provide habitat for animals but are not ecosystems without animals*
- BiodiversityWhat is the definition of biodiversity? When we ask, what is the definition of biodiversity? It depends on what we want to do with it. The term is widely and commonly misused, leading to significant misinterpretation of the importance of how animals function on Earth and why they matter a great deal, to human survival. Here I will try to More is the sum total of all the processes that happen within ecosystems and deliver life support for animals.
*You could argue that plants are ecosystems but as humans can’t survive in them without the animal components, that would be rather self-defeating from a conservationWhy is animal conservation important? Animal conservation is important, because animals are the only mechanism to create biodiversity, which is the mechanism that creates a habitable planet for humans. Without animals, the energy from today’s plants (algae, trees, flowers etc) will eventually reach the atmosphere and ocean, much of it as carbon. The quantity of this plant-based waste is so More perspective.
The consequence of minimising waste energy (pollution) and the creation of a steady stable-state(of an ecosystem) where free surplus energy is minimised, where there is maximum entropy production and minimum waste. In such a system, there is expected to be relatively small fluctuations in atmospheric and other chemistry and where disruption or disturbance occurs, the resulting changes can be absorbed quickly by a succession of new plants and animals that enter to fill More of being, is clean water and air, abundant and energy-rich food (the energy is now concentrated and contained safely inside biological systems).
Wildlife benefits by consuming the products that grow within ecosystems and when these are operating optimally, the nutrientsEnergy and nutrients are the same thing. Plants capture energy from the Sun and store it in chemicals, via the process of photosynthesis. The excess greenery and waste that plants create, contain chemicals that animals can eat, in order to build their own bodies and reproduce. When a chemical is used this way, we call it a nutrient. As we More (another way of saying “energy”) are at their highest concentrations, able to fuel the bodies of larger animals.
Humans are just another animal that evolved as part of these stabilisation mechanisms and as much as any other animal, therefore, rely on maintaining ecosystem structure and function for the species’ survival. From a human (and other animal) perspective, ecosystems are not vegetation. The functional part that enables animal life is the part that animals create for each other–to stabilise their own living environment.
All this means that ecosystems cannot operate without a suite of animals working together. Wildlife is the essential underpinning of all life support for human beings and the stability and delivery of sufficient nutrient to survive, depends on other animals being present in proportionate numbers, to maintain ecosystem structure and function.
