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Ch. 55 - Ecosystems and Restoration Ecology

Chapter 55, Problem 5

Which of the following has the greatest effect on the rate of chemical cycling in an ecosystem? a. the rate of decomposition in the ecosystem b. the production efficiency of the ecosystem's consumers c. the trophic efficiency of the ecosystem d. the location of the nutrient reservoirs in the ecosystem

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Hello everyone. And in today's video we have the following problem which of the below option has a major impact on ecosystems, frequency of chemical cycling and chemical cycling is a process by which compounds in an ecosystem circulate through it and they may change form or states as they do so and so let's look over answer choices and see which one has a major impact on the circulation of chemicals through an ecosystem beginning with answer choice B. And this is clearing capacity and the carrying capacity of an ecosystem is tolerated population size of the ecosystem. So basically the maximum amount of these organisms that can live in it without disrupting this ecosystem. This has nothing really to do with chemical cycling, has nothing to do with the circulation of compounds through the ecosystem. So we're going to cancel it out. Moving on to answer choice see And this is a species interactions and species may interact in many different ways such as through competition, predation, mutual ism parasitism and commence dualism. However, none of these have an impact on chemical cycling of an ecosystem. None of these really have to do with compounds circulating through it and changing form. So now let's cancel it out as well. Moving on we have option the economic productivity and this is unrelated to ecosystem. This has to do with the economy of of countries. So it has really nothing to do with with compounds in an ecosystem undergoing chemical cycling. So that leaves the option A which is the composition rates and this involves the decay of nutrients and as these nutrients decay they take a different form and they may be reused again, they circulate through the ecosystem as they decay. So this has a major impact on chemical cycling. So the faster that these nutrients are able to decay, the more chemical cycling as nutrients will be able to pass through the ecosystem faster, so it is directly related. And we can highlight it as being or final answer. So I really hope this video helped you and I hope to see you on the next one.
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