Ecosystem models are tools that help us guess how the environment might change. They do this by recreating the way living things and non-living things affect each other.
There are two key parts to these models:
Biotic Factors: This means how different species, like animals and plants, interact with each other. Examples include things like who eats whom (predation) and how they compete for resources.
Abiotic Factors: These are the non-living things that affect the environment, such as weather, temperature, and rainfall.
These models can help us understand how the locations of different species might shift. For instance, some studies suggest that by the year 2100, we could see a 50% drop in the variety of living things (biodiversity) because of climate change.
Also, we can measure how energy moves through the ecosystem using something called trophic levels. You can think of it like a food chain, where only about 10% of the energy moves up from one level to the next.
Ecosystem models are tools that help us guess how the environment might change. They do this by recreating the way living things and non-living things affect each other.
There are two key parts to these models:
Biotic Factors: This means how different species, like animals and plants, interact with each other. Examples include things like who eats whom (predation) and how they compete for resources.
Abiotic Factors: These are the non-living things that affect the environment, such as weather, temperature, and rainfall.
These models can help us understand how the locations of different species might shift. For instance, some studies suggest that by the year 2100, we could see a 50% drop in the variety of living things (biodiversity) because of climate change.
Also, we can measure how energy moves through the ecosystem using something called trophic levels. You can think of it like a food chain, where only about 10% of the energy moves up from one level to the next.