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... that ants exhibit eusociality, a social organization in a hierarchy?
(Pictured left: A meat ant.) |
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| ... the Gaia hypothesis, also known as Gaia theory or Gaia principle, proposes that all organisms and their inorganic surroundings on Earth are closely integrated to form a single and self-regulating complex system, maintaining the conditions for life on the planet? |
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... that scientists estimate approximately 230,000 ocean species are currently known, but the total could be up to 10 times that number? (Pictured left: A school of Goldband fusilier (Pterocaesio chrysozona) in Papua, New Guinea.) |
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... that the highest recorded temperature on Earth was 136 °F (57.8 °C), which was recorded in Al 'Aziziyah, Libya on September 13, 1922? (Pictured left: A false-color image of the sun, photographed by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA 304) of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory) |
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... by astronomical convention, the four seasons are determined by the solstices—the point in the orbit of maximum axial tilt of the Earth toward or away from the Sun—and the equinoxes, when the direction of the tilt and the direction to the Sun are perpendicular?
(Pictured left: Animation of seasonal differences, particularly snow cover throughout the year) |
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| ... that in 2006, the United Nations estimated humanity's total ecological footprint to be 1.4 planet Earths? In other words, humanity uses ecological services 1.4 times as fast as Earth can renew them?[1] |
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... in the United States, heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems account for 30% (4.65 EJ) of the energy used in commercial buildings and nearly 50% (10.1 EJ) of the energy used in residential buildings? Solar-powered heating, cooling and ventilation technologies can be used to offset a portion of this energy. (Pictured left: Part of the Nellis Solar Power Plant, a 14 megawatt power plant installed in 2007, in Nevada) |
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... in many cultures, termites (particularly the winged ones known as alates) are used for food? (Pictured left: Formosan subterranean termites) |
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... antarctic krill, a species of krill found in the Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean, lives in large schools, called swarms, sometimes reaching densities of 10,000–30,000 individual animals per cubic metre? |
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... insects are among the most diverse groups of animals on the planet, include more than a million described species and represent more than half of all known living organisms? (Pictured left: A Calliphora hilli, a blow fly species in the genus Calliphora.) |
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... before drainage, the Everglades were an interwoven mesh of marshes and prairies covering 4,000 square miles (10,000 km2)? (Pictured left: An alligator amid strands of periphyton in the Everglades) |
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... marine ecosystems are among the largest of Earth's aquatic ecosystems? They include oceans, salt marsh and intertidal ecology, estuaries and lagoons, mangroves and coral reefs, the deep sea and the sea floor. They can be contrasted with freshwater ecosystems, which have a lower salt content. (Pictured left: Coral reefs form complex marine ecosystems with tremendous biodiversity.) |
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Portal:Ecology/Did you know/13
| ... paleoecology uses data from fossils and subfossils to reconstruct the ecosystems of the past? It involves the study of fossil organisms and their associated remains, including their life cycle, living interactions, natural environment, and manner of death and burial to reconstruct the paleoevironment. |
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... industrial ecology is the study of material and energy flows through industrial systems? The global industrial economy can be modeled as a network of industrial processes that extract resources from the Earth and transform those resources into commodities which can be bought and sold to meet the needs of humanity. (Pictured left: Example of Industrial Symbiosis. Waste steam from a waste incinerator (right) is piped to an ethanol plant (left) where it is used as in input to their production process.) |
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| ... systems ecology is an interdisciplinary field of ecology, taking a holistic approach to the study of ecological systems, especially ecosystems? Systems ecology can be seen as an application of general systems theory to ecology. Central to the systems ecology approach is the idea that an ecosystem is a complex system exhibiting emergent properties. |
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... restoration ecology is the scientific study and practice of renewing and restoring degraded, damaged, or destroyed ecosystems and habitats in the environment by active human intervention and action, within a short time frame? Restoration ecology emerged as a separate field in ecology in the 1980s. (Pictured left: Recently constructed wetland regeneration in Australia, on a site previously used for agriculture) |
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... soil ecology is the study of the interactions among soil organisms, and between biotic and abiotic aspects of the soil environment? It is particularly concerned with the cycling of nutrients, formation and stabilization of the pore structure, the spread and vitality of pathogens, and the biodiversity of this rich biological community. (Pictured left: a type of soil known as ultisol, common throughout the American South (especially near the piedmont), and colloquially known as "red clay soil". Photo taken in the Piedmont region of North Carolina.) |
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| ... chemical ecology is the study of the chemicals involved in the interactions of living organisms? It focuses on the production of and response to signaling molecules (i.e. semiochemicals) and toxins. |
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| ... molecular ecology is a field of evolutionary biology that is concerned with applying molecular population genetics, molecular phylogenetics, and more recently genomics to traditional ecological questions (e.g., species diagnosis, conservation and assessment of biodiversity, species-area relationships, and many questions in behavioral ecology)? |
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... desert ecology is the sum of the interactions between both biotic and abiotic processes in arid regions, and it includes the interactions of plant, animal, and bacterial populations in a desert habitat, ecosystem, and community? Some of the abiotic factors also include latitude and longitude, soil, and climate. Each of these factors have caused adaptations to the particular environment of the region. (Pictured left: Two Ocotillo plants, in White Tank Mountains Regional Park) |
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... the Antarctic cod, or Antarctic toothfish, of the fish family Nototheniidae, is famous for producing antifreeze glycoprotein that allows it to survive in the ice-laden waters of the Southern Ocean surrounding Antarctica? With a heartbeat once every six seconds, research involving Antarctic toothfish may lead to advances in cardiac medicine involving conditions where human hearts beat slowly during certain medical procedures or fail to beat fast enough due to hypothermia. |
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