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Knowledge and Skills Statement

Science concepts--interdependence within environmental systems. The student knows that interactions at various levels of organization occur within an ecosystem to maintain stability.

the process that moves carbon between plants, animals, microbes, minerals in the Earth, and the atmosphere; the cycle of carbon in Earth's ecosystems in which carbon dioxide is fixed by photosynthetic organisms to form organic nutrients and is ultimately restored to the inorganic state (as by respiration and combustion)

the biotic and abiotic resources provided to support specific populations in a community

the ability of an ecosystem to maintain and propagate itself without inputs from outside the system

the continuous series of natural processes by which nitrogen is passed through the biosphere involving principally nitrogen fixation, nitrification, decay, and denitrification

Research

Shuyu, He, Kangning Xiong, Shuzhen Song, Yongkuan Chi, Jinzhong Fang, and Chen He. "Research Progress of Grassland Ecosystem Structure and Stability and Inspiration for Improving Its Service Capacity in the Karst Desertification Control." Plants 12, no. 4 (2023): 770. https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12040770

Summary:  The structure and stability of grassland ecosystems have a significant impact on biodiversity, material cycling, and productivity for ecosystem services. However, the issue of the structure and stability of grassland ecosystems has not been systematically reviewed. We used the systematic-review method and screened 133 papers to describe and analyze the frontiers of research into the structure and stability of grassland ecosystems.

Research

Kiessling, Wolfgang. "Long-term Relationships between Ecological Stability and Biodiversity in Phanerozoic Reefs." Nature 433, no. 7024 (January 2005): 410-413. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature03152

Summary:  High biodiversity has been shown to enhance ecological stability on small spatial scales and over intervals of weeks to decades [1, 2, 3, 4]. It remains unclear, however, whether this diversity-stability relationship can be scaled up to regional scales, or to longer timescales [5]. Here I show that in biogenic reefs, ecological stability is related to taxonomic diversity on million-year timescales.