Ecosystem control, Biology

Assignment Help:

Ecosystem Control

Another important aspect of ecosystem functioning that is how it maintains its ecological balance. By now, it must be obvious to you that an ecosystem is a dynamic system, wherein a lot of events take place. For example, animals eat and in turn are eaten, moisture and nutrients flow in and out of the system, and weathers change. In spite of all these happenings the ecosystems persist and recover from the slight disturbances. This capacity of an ecosystem to self-regulate or self-maintain is called homeostasis. Isn't this ability of ecosystems to recover from certain perturbations remarkable? Let us take a simple example to see that how is this balance maintained in spite of the fight disturbances in the ecosystem.

Consider a grassland, when there is a drought, do not grow well. The mice that eat the grass become malnourished. When this happens, their birth rate decreases. And also the hungry mice retreat to their burrows and sleep. By doing so, they need less food and are less exposed to predators, so their death rates decrease. Their behaviour protects their own population balance as well as that of the grasses which are not being consumed while the mice hibernate. Such a mechanism is known as feedback regulation and is very important to maintain the ecological balance. It is the prime regulatory mechanism for the ecosystem as a whole. You may know that there are several kinds of organisms comprising an ecosystem. So all the organisms in an ecosystem are part of several different feedback loops. A feedback loop may be defined as relationship in which a change in some original rate, alters the rate of direction of further change. In the above example, we had deliberately taken a very small group of living beings that has primarily the mice and the plants.


Related Discussions:- Ecosystem control

Define drug metabolism (poly-pharmacy), Define Drug metabolism (Poly-pharma...

Define Drug metabolism (Poly-pharmacy)? As older persons are sometimes prescribed number of medications, care is to be taken, as there is reduction in renal and hepatic clearan

Explain about oligomeric enzymes, Oligomeric enzymes Oligomeric protein...

Oligomeric enzymes Oligomeric proteins consist of two or more polypeptide chains, which are usually linked to each other by non-covalent interactions and never by peptide bonds

Representation of the metabolism, Biological effects: Aflatoxins are acute ...

Biological effects: Aflatoxins are acute hepatotoxins and are known to be carcinogenic in some animal species as rat. Aflatoxin B1 is acutely toxic and is responsible for liver nec

Skin, Two adaptation of the skin against attack by micro-organisms

Two adaptation of the skin against attack by micro-organisms

Explain reproducibility of venricular ectopy, Q. Explain Reproducibility of...

Q. Explain Reproducibility of Venricular Ectopy ? Experimentally it has been shown that PVCs are frequently seen at the inception of acute ischaemia. Thus, exercise induced PVC

Why d scientists pick hydrogen as the basis for mri scanning, Why d scienti...

Why d scientists pick hydrogen as the basis for MRI scanning? Name of the human body that do not appear in an MRI scan. Explain thermal stratification? How does thermal stratifi

Animal around us, #question.what are the reason that arthropodans are abund...

#question.what are the reason that arthropodans are abundant in nature.

Explain the burden of hypertension in heart diseases, Explain the Burden of...

Explain the Burden of Hypertension in heart diseases ? Since 1942, there have been several small and large population-based studies on Hypertension. A ineta-analysis showed an

Cell, What is a Cell? The body of every living being is made up a livin...

What is a Cell? The body of every living being is made up a living matter or bio matter. In the organisms these matters occur only in the form of minute membrane bound unit lum

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd