Word: ecosystems
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...while these studies have sparked much talk about the Greenhouse Effect, the work of one Harvard biologist points to other adverse environmental effects--that the high carbon dioxide content is making plants less healthy and ultimately throwing the ecosystem off balance...
...Ecosystem Affected...
...nitrogen deficiency will not only affect the plants, but the ecosystem as well, Bazzaz says...
Experiments in the Harvard Forest Ecosystem near Petersham, Mass. have shown that if there is too much carbon in the leaves, decomposition slows down, and nutrients are returned to the ground more slowly. Once there are less nutrients in the ground, plant growth will be stunted...
...begin, they face a daunting enterprise. "You can destroy a prairie in two hours," observes Robert Betz, a Northeastern Illinois University biology professor. "But to rebuild it might take half a century or more." Essential to the task is identifying the dynamic process that shaped each ecosystem and, if need be, putting it back into play. Prairies and bur oak woodlands, for instance, were both created by fire. Without fire, their bright flowers and luxuriant grasses are shaded out by invading brush. Where in centuries past roving bands of Plains Indians set fire to the prairies to flush out game...