Energy Flows

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Energy and Nutrients:

Energy and nutrient flows are fundamental to an ecosystem functioning properly

Nutrient cycling - the feedback of minerals from decomposed organic material back into plants

Energy flows - the flow of energy through the system e.g. food chain or food web

Energy Flows:

Primary producers at level 1 convert sunlight into energy via photosynthesis

Energy is lost through respiration at each stage

The amount of biomass at each level also decreases

Any change to this cycle can put the ecosystem under threat

Nutrient Flows:

The circulation of chemical elements from the environment to organisms and back to the environment again

Nutrients are stored as either soil, litter or biomass

This is easily affected as it is an OPEN SYSTEM and nutrients can be added physically or by human elements

Movement of Species:

As we have traversed the world, species have been moved both knowingly and unknowingly

They can pose a threat to the native ecosystem

Along with that many species become invasive along with other problems

Alien Species share several features:

Enhanced survival rates

Lack native predator

Not as susceptible to disease

This means that they are often very difficult to control e.g. cane toad

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