Rhea Alyxes Joyce Layson II - BSA

Prof. Charlyn T. Gorgonio GE 15 : 11820

Let’s Analyze
Activity 1. Getting acquainted with the essential terms in the study of ecosystems is not
enough; what also matters is you should also be able to explain its interrelationships.
Now, I will require you to explain your answers thoroughly.
1. How would you explain the importance of tropical rain forests to people who
think that such forests have no connection to their lives?
Rainforest may seem like a distant concern to us humans, however, these ecosystems
are critically important for our well-being. Rainforests are known as the lungs of the planet.
Their role in absorbing carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases and as well as producing
oxygen is what we all depend for our survival. Rainforest also stabilize the climate and
produce nourishing rainfall all around the world. They provide home for the plants, in
which we hinge on for the oxygen we take, protect against erosion, flood and drought,
and even a source for medicines and foods.
2. Explain. (a) why the flow of energy through the biosphere depends on the cycling
of nutrients?
Biosphere encompasses all living organisms that can be found in the atmosphere,
geosphere, and hydrosphere. The energy of the biosphere is reliant on on the amounts
of nutrients available for the organism. The cycling process is made because plants get
their nutrients from the soil and the nutrients must be recycled back to the soil because
the earth’s surface does not provide enough amount of fixed nutrients. If the nutrients are
not recycled, plants won’t be able to have their food, thus, the flow of energy will be
disturbed.
b) why the cycling of nutrients depends on gravity?
The force of gravity facilitates the planet to hold on to the resources present in its
atmosphere and helps to enable the movement and cycling of chemicals through air,
water, soil and organisms.
3. Explain why microbes are so important. What are two ways in which they benefit
your health or lifestyle? Write a brief description of what you think would happen
to you if microbes were eliminated from the earth?
Microbes are the decomposers of the environment. Without them, we will be exposed and
live in wastes and the nutrient cycle would stop for they feed on dead and waste materials.
Also, they convert organic molecules into inorganic molecules such as water which is
perhaps the most important and most abundant molecule in our body. Microbes also
contribute to the nutrient cycle in which they derived back the nutrients to the environment.
They are also beneficial for the health of the species, in which they are present to some
friendly bacteria that produces beneficial compounds and digest undigested foods.
4. Make a list of the foods you ate for lunch or dinner today. Trace each type of food
back to a particular producer species. Describe the sequence of feeding levels that
led to your feeding.
Chicken, oil, laurel, potato. Chicken is the animal food, which forms the part of the non-
vegetarian diet. Oil, vegetables are derived from plants which belongs to the producers’
category.
5. How might your life and the lives of any children or grandchildren you might
have be affected if human activities as a whole continue to intensify the water
cycle?
The water cycle is a type of nutrient cycle which is indirectly or directly driven by the
energy from the sun and by the Earth’s surface. Some human withdraw freshwater which
is only about 3% of earth’s water, from the water resources at faster rates than natural
process can replenish it. This condition will lead to depletion of some aquifers. Also,
deforestation increases water runoff and reduces infiltration that would normally recharge
groundwater supplies. Lastly, humans drain and fill wetlands for farming and urban
development. The children of individuals may suffer more than the individual himself, due
to the disruption of all biogeochemical cycle, damaged caused to biodiversity and
changes in climate initiated by human.
6. What would happen to an ecosystem if (a) all of its decomposers and detritus
feeders were eliminated, (b) all of its producers were eliminated, and (c) all of its
insects were eliminated? Could a balanced ecosystem exist with only producers
and decomposers and no consumers such as humans and other animals? Explain.
Decomposers and detritus feeders form a final link in the food chain by breaking down
the dead organisms and returning essential nutrients back to the ecosystem. If all of the
decomposers and detritus feeder were eliminated, the waste and remains of the dead
organisms will mound up in the environment. The nutrients present in the dead organisms
will not be released back in the ecosystem, in which producers will suffer from nutrient
deficiency and its survivability will be difficult.
Producers play an important role in converting the solar energy into different forms that
can be used by other consumers. If all produces will be eliminated consumers have
nowhere to get energy therefore cannot live and could die of starvation.
If all insects were eliminated, the producers would be hardly pollenated therefore would
extinct and cause mass extinction. If there is no consumer, the producers would
overgrow and take out too much resource from the nature and cause a mass extinction.