ANT 200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Herbivore, Thermodynamics, Food Web
Document Summary
Species: population level building blocks of ecosystems across the biosphere. Look systematically: substantial constraints on types of animals who can exist in an ecosystem. S1 (herbivore) eaten by s2 (consumer who relies on s1) Important ways for nutrients to get formed from soil by plants and fungi. Life span: s4 > s3 > s2 > s1. Thermodynamics as well: growth of plant biomass (relatively unconstrained) Herbivores usually don"t reproduce as much as the plant species they are going for. Efficient way of hunting: whole range in terms of costs: searching, allocating functions. Substantial constraints which make trophic levels metabolically constrained. Less diversity in colder environment: trophic levels constrained metabolically. As you go up a trophic level: costs of obtaining and searching for prey. Certain tracts: allocated to specific trophic levels: contributes to life span and utilization of resources. Good at digesting carbs, meat, fat: plug into multiple levels below us in food chains.
