Biology

APES Articles: China's Acid Rain Control Strategy Offset By Increased Nitrogen Oxide Air Pollution http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091014122054.htm U.N. Says Lag in Confronting Climate Woes Will Be Costly http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/earth/ Toxic Mercury Pollution May Rise with Arctic Meltdown http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=toxic-mercury-pollution-may-rise-with-arctic-meltdown Undersea Freshwater Reserves Could Quench the World?s Thirst for Decades http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2013/12/06/freshwater-reserves-quench-worlds-thirst-decades/ Natural Gas Pipeline Leaks Across Washington, DC http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/es404474x Puzzling moose deaths hint at climate shock to forests

Ecosystem Energetics Laws of Thermodynamics 1st ? Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only transformed from one type to the other All energy in an ecosystem ultimately comes from the sun 2nd ? In any transfer of energy, energy is lost. Energy is constantly being lost to the environment as heat Primary Productivity Primary Productivity is the production of organic compounds from atmospheric or aquatic CO2, principally through the process of photosynthesis Plants use the product of photosynthesis in 2 ways 1. Plant structures such as proteins, cells, tissues (building the plant body) 2. Fuel for Respiration. This powers such processes as growth, transpiration, reproduction, etc. Gross primary productivity (GPP) ? total amount of energy from photosynthesis