Ecology and Climate Change
Ecology and Climate Change tests ecosystem function, energy flow, succession, biogeochemical cycles and global climate governance.
Core rules
- An ecosystem is a biotic community plus its abiotic environment; components are producers, consumers and decomposers.
- Energy flow is unidirectional; Lindeman's 10% law applies; pyramids of number, biomass and energy exist. Inverted pyramids occur in aquatic ecosystems and parasite chains.
- Succession: hydrarch (wet to dry), xerarch (dry to wet), primary versus secondary, and climax community.
- Cycles: carbon, nitrogen (fixation, nitrification, denitrification) and phosphorus (sedimentary).
- Climate: UNFCCC (1992), Kyoto Protocol (1997), Paris Agreement (2015) with NDCs, IPCC AR6, India's net-zero target for 2070, REDD+ and carbon markets.
- Chhattisgarh has a tropical monsoon climate; sal forests are carbon sinks, while fires and mining are pressures.
Worked example
Producers fix 20,000 kcal. Reasoning: at 10% transfer, herbivores receive 2,000 kcal, secondary consumers 200 kcal and tertiary consumers 20 kcal. The pyramid of energy is always upright because energy is lost as heat at each step.
Traps
- Applying the 10% law as exact; it is a generalisation.
- Confusing primary succession with regrowth after fire.
- Mixing Kyoto's binding Annex I targets with Paris's bottom-up NDCs.
- Calling all tree carbon permanent; fire releases it.