Chapter 6. Chapter 6: Ecosystems and Nutrient Cycling

What factors must be considered in order to create or restore an ecosystem?

Interactive Study Guide
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Guiding Question 6.5

What factors must be considered in order to create or restore an ecosystem?

Why You Should Care

Ecosystems that are healthy provide priceless services for humans: clean water, fresh air, and pollinated crops to name a few. Laws are in effect that require the creation of new wetlands if existing wetlands are destroyed for development. Many projects are underway now to restore ecosystems to their former states. This almost always comes from a realization that our well-intentioned alterations of ecosystems have caused more problems than they solved.

Question 6.1

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Infographic 6.5: Map of Biosphere 2

Question 6.2

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Question 6.3

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Question 6.4

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Question 6.5

Infographic 6.4: Biome Graph
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Savannas and tropical rainforests and a large portion of deserts fall within the same temperature ranges. They form a gradient from driest to wettest.

Question 6.6

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Question 6.7

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Question 6.8

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Infographic 6.9: Oxygen Depletion in Biosphere 2

Question 6.9

Pick the two examples of consumers in the Infographic above:

People 9PufMCe/gaVcshPB

Soil microbes 9PufMCe/gaVcshPB

Crops 6Tla4sTC7UhhcmHA

Trees 6Tla4sTC7UhhcmHA

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Question 6.10

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Crops and trees are producers, so they both take up CO2 and release O2 via photosynthesis and release CO2 and take up O2 via cellular respiration. People and soil microbes are consumers and only undergo cellular respiration.

Question 6.11

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As microbes decompose organisms, they undergo cellular respiration and convert organic compounds in that organism into CO2, so most of the mass lost is carbon dioxide. Incidentally, this is where your weight goes when you lose it.

Question

Short-Answer Questions

Suppose that a team of scientists decides to start up a Biosphere 3.

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1) You could make an argument for any of the nutrient cycles, but based on the experiences from Biosphere 2, figuring out how to account for the oxygen-consuming activity of the soil microbes in the carbon cycle is crucial.

2) The glass walls of a biosphere building would work the same way as the atmosphere: Solar energy would be reflected and heat energy would also escape. Assuming the building is sealed to outside air, soil, and water, matter should not be able leave.

3) There are many approaches you could take, but there would have to be some way to add more producers that would take up extra carbon dioxide and produce more oxygen.