What are the Ecological Benefits of ... Bacteria?
How does bacteria benefit the planet?
answers.com
Bacteria are the only living things which can fix nitrogen. They are therefore essential to all other life on Earth.
[...]
Bacteria are the major decomposers of dead plants and animals, so freeing their atoms to be re-used by other living things.
What are the Ecological Benefits of Earthworms?
What Are the Benefits of Earthworms?
Chris Joseph -- ehow.com
Earthworms improve the quality of soil. Their tunneling activities loosen hardened soil, and their movement to the surface can result in the transportation of vital minerals that are sometimes in short supply there. Their movement also results in the mixing of various layers of soil.
[...]
Earthworms also can help the environment. Earthworm Benefits indicates bacteria living inside of worms actually can break down chemicals found in some hazardous materials. They also can reduce soil erosion.
What are the Ecological Benefits of Ants?
Ant
newworldencyclopedia.org
Although viewed as pests by many people, ants play a tremendously important role in the earth's natural ecosystems. They recycle dead plants and animals, enrich the soil, pollinate flowers, spread seeds, and are a major food source for many animals, among other contributions. Beyond these ecological values, humans benefit in many ways, including in the role of ants in keeping potentially harmful insects, such as termites and agricultural pests, under control.
What are the Ecological Benefits of Bees?
The benefit of bees
new-ag.info
Forget about honey, pollen and royal jelly. Just think of a world without beans, tomatoes, onions and carrots, not to mention the hundreds of other vegetables, oilseeds and fruits that are dependent upon bees for pollination. And the livestock that are dependent upon bee-pollinated forage plants, such as clover. No human activity or ingenuity could ever replace the work of bees and yet it is largely taken for granted.
What are the Ecological Benefits of Birds?
Potential Impacts of Agriculture on Nepal Birds
Our Nature (2010) 8: 270-312
Ecological benefits of birds to agriculture
Many birds are useful to farmers for:
-- the dispersal of seeds;
-- the control of snakes and harmful pests in crops;
-- cleaning up the environment by acting as natural scavengers;
-- pollinating crops and plantation trees;
-- helping to ensure that farming is sustainable by acting as indicators;
-- the health of the ecological system;
What are the Ecological Benefits of Wolves?
Ecological Benefits Of Wolves
wyoming.sierraclub.org
Wolves play a vital role in maintaining the health and sustainability of the landscape in the greater Yellowstone region and our western lands. They are a keystone species, one that has a disproportionate impact on its environment relative to its abundance. Since their return in 1995, wolves have benefited this ecosystem by regulating prey numbers and movements—allowing streambank habitats to recover, reducing densities of coyotes, and providing food for scavengers.
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What are the Ecological Benefits of Humans?
No Google results found for "ecological benefits of humans".
No Google results found for "environmental benefits of humans".
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OK, What are the Ecological Benefits of Humans?
3rd search result hit for "benefits of humans" ...
Can Humans Survive?
Jeremy Hsu, livescience.com -- July 19, 2010
Humans have survived ice ages and deadly pandemics to become the dominant species on Earth, even if our reign over the planet barely represents a blip in a geological record that has seen countless living organisms come and go. We have adapted to live almost anywhere, and have harnessed the power of nature by splitting atoms and splicing DNA to reshape the world. Yet those same technologies could also doom humanity to extinction if misused.
[...]
"As we move to a civilization that's so much more powerful in terms of controlling nature and manipulating nature, and becoming ever more powerful in our tools and capabilities, there's an inherent risk in that," said Benny Peiser, a social anthropologist and director of the Global Warming Policy Foundation in London, England.
Technology has given humans a better shot at long-term survival today than at any point in their history, Peiser said. He added the cautionary note that humans still face a risky transition before being able to responsibly use such technology.
[...]
Searching for solutions
One technological solution to climate change already exists through carbon capture and storage, according to Wallace Broecker, a geochemist and renowned climate scientist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York City.
But Broecker remained skeptical that governments or industry would commit the resources needed to slow the rise of carbon dioxide (CO2) levels, and predicted that more drastic geoengineering might become necessary to stabilize the planet.
"The rise in CO2 isn't going to kill many people, and it's not going to kill humanity," Broecker said. "But it's going to change the entire wild ecology of the planet, melt a lot of ice, acidify the ocean, change the availability of water and change crop yields, so we're essentially doing an experiment whose result remains uncertain."
Humans -- the only 'animal' with the technology and the knowledge to "conduct a experiment" on the entire Planet.
Humans -- the only 'animal' with the technology and the knowledge to make-over the entire Planet, according to our own self-centered image.
And Humans -- apparently are the only 'animal' without the collective wisdom, to do any of that wisely. To do that "experiment" ... sustainably.
In the Lab, when an "experiment" fails -- you clean up the mess, glean what you learned, and you start over.
With Planetary-sized "experiments" -- when they fail ... the Do-Over path, is not so clear ... not so easy.
If the rest of the ecological players on Planet Earth, did as we do ... if they treated their home as also their own personal dump-yard?
Well there would probably, be No Ecology -- for us Humans, to profit from, now would there?
Just ask the lowly Bacteria ... or the Ant ... Where is the Ecological Benefits, of our grand Human Experiment?
Their ecological response, might surprise us ...
Sometimes, there is power in numbers ... Ecologically speaking. Community speaking. Humanly speaking.
