This paper describes a research on the biological validity of virtual ecosystems. Artificial Life systems are designed in the pursuit of creating an instance of life in a computational environment. The reproduction mechanisms of these systems are compared with nature’s reproduction mechanisms as described by Ernst Mayr. This research determines if the ecosystems give a correct representation of...

Global biodiversity is rapidly declining, leading inevitably to a loss of ecosystem functionality when species and their associated life-history traits vanish. Unfortunately, even in the 21(st) century, a large proportion of Earth's species are yet unknown and also for most described species science lacks a deeper understanding of the functional role of species and thus of ecosystems. In this A...

Natural ecosystems contain many individuals and species interacting with each other and with their abiotic environment. Such systems can be expected to exhibit complex dynamics in which small perturbations can be amplified to cause large changes. Here, we document the reorganization of an arid ecosystem that has occurred since the late 1970s. The density of woody shrubs increased 3-fold. Severa...

Theoretical analyses and experimental studies of synthesized assemblages indicate that under particular circumstances species diversity can enhance community productivity through niche complementarity. It remains unclear whether this process has important effects in mature natural ecosystems where competitive feedbacks and complex environmental influences affect diversity-productivity relations...

Aim Climate change threatens to shift vegetation, disrupting ecosystems and damaging human well-being. Field observations in boreal, temperate and tropical ecosystems have detected biome changes in the 20th century, yet a lack of spatial data on vulnerability hinders organizations that manage natural resources from identifying priority areas for adaptation measures. We explore potential methods...

Our present in-depth knowledge of the physiology and regulatory mechanisms of microorganisms has arisen from our ability to remove them from their natural, complex ecosystems into pure liquid cultures. These cultures are grown under optimized laboratory conditions and allow us to study microorganisms as individuals. However, microorganisms naturally grow in conditions that are far from optimal,...

introduction due to its multifunctional nature agriculture play important roles in ecological processes such as carbon sequestration, flood control, groundwater recharge, nutrient cycling, and purifying water, soil and air in addition to providing food, feed and fiber. these cover almost all ecological services provided by natural ecosystems, including provisioning services, regulating services...

Forested ecosystems are dynamic, subject to natural developmental processes as well as natural and anthropogenic stresses and disturbances. Degradation is a related term. for lowered productive capacity from changes to forest structure of function (FAO. 2001). Degradation is not synonymous with disturbance, however; disturbance becomes degradation when natural resilience mechanisms are overwhel...

urban environments rely on the surrounding natural ecosystems remnants as providers of ecosystemfunctions, therefore these areas not only support a unique biodiversity but also have a social value for maintainingpublic health andwellbeing. for this reason, urbanization is considered to be one the biggest threats to ecosystems,leading to native biodiversity simplification and, thus, to a detrime...