Ecosystems and Global Biodiversity

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Across
  1. 2. the amount of money that people are prepared to spend or forgo to keep an ecosystem (or species within an ecosystem) in existence
  2. 4. a series of organisms, each eating or decomposing the preceding one
  3. 5. the capacity of an ecosystem to regenerate after human interference
  4. 9. the money that people are prepared to pay to interact with an ecosystem or species
  5. 11. a network of interconnected food chains
  6. 12. see, autotrophic organism
  7. 15. a group of interdependent organisms living together in a common environment and interacting with one another
  8. 17. the ecosystem of the planet; the totality of all ecosystems
  9. 19. one species gradually taking over an environment from another as circumstances within the environment change; for example, as a climate becomes drier, drought resistant species will gradually take over
  10. 20. related to life, especially plants and animals
  11. 23. the rate at which biological matter (biomass) is produced by an ecosystem or part of an ecosystem
  12. 25. an organism that can manufacture carbon from inorganic material for the provision of energy and the building blocks of its growth, as most chlorophyll-producing plants
  13. 26. the biological components of an ecosystem
  14. 28. the theory that in nature, only the strongest will survive and therefore nature will naturally select the strongest and allow the weaker to die out, first put forward by Charles Darwin
  15. 29. an area that remains from what was once a larger area
Down
  1. 1. occurs when an output of matter or energy is fed back into the system as an input and leads to changes in that system
  2. 3. an economic term meaning that to do one thing, something else must be given up; that which is given up is the opportunity cost
  3. 6. the variety of species and the genetic variability among individuals within each species
  4. 7. a point at which even small changes can have significant consequences
  5. 8. a situation in which stability is achieved in an ecosystem
  6. 10. the dynamic complex of plant, animal and microorganism communities and their non-living environment as a functional unit
  7. 13. relating to size
  8. 14. an organism that feeds by breaking down the dead organic matter in an ecosystem
  9. 16. the removal, by water, of minerals from the upper layers of a soil to the lower layers
  10. 18. the study of organisms and their relationship to one another and their surroundings
  11. 21. the environment of a living organism
  12. 22. an environment where one plant species dominates totally
  13. 24. the dependence of organisms on each other for the survival of their species, within a habitat
  14. 27. all organisms of the same kind that are potentially capable of breeding and producing fertile offspring