Ecological functions

Erincipal element of sustainability. Because it is difficult to imagine owhuman health can be maintained in a degraded, unhealthy natural world, the issue of ecosystem health should be a more fundamental concern. Sustainabihty requires that the health of all diverse species as well as their interrelated ecological functions be maintained. As only one species in a complex web of ecological interactions, humans cannot separate their success from that of the total system. 

Use values are defined as the utility one person gains from using the good or service, for example walking in the forest or fishing. This use value includes direct and non-direct values. The direct use value is the value attributed to direct utilization of ecosystem services. Non-direct-use value or functional value relates to the ecological function performed, e.g. by forests, such as the protection of soils and the regulation of watersheds [19]. 

The major function of cutin is to serve as the structural component of the outer barrier of plants. As the major component of the cuticle it plays a major role in the interaction of the plant with its environment. Development of the cuticle is thought to be responsible for the ability of plants to move onto land where the cuticle limits diffusion of moisture and thus prevents desiccation [141]. The plant cuticle controls the exchange of matter between leaf and atmosphere. The transport properties of the cuticle strongly influences the loss of water and solutes from the leaf interior as well as uptake of nonvolatile chemicals from the atmosphere to the leaf surface. In the absence of stomata the cuticle controls gas exchange. The cuticle as a transport-limiting barrier is important in its physiological and ecological functions. The diffusion across plant cuticle follows basic laws of passive diffusion across lipophylic membranes [142]. Isolated cuticular membranes have been used to study this permeability and the results obtained appear to be valid... 

Heldt HW and Heldt F. 2005. Secondary metabolites fulfill specific ecological functions in plants. In Plant Biochemistry, 3rd ed. San Diego, CA Elsevier Academic Press, pp. 402-412. 

Tartowski, S. L., Butler, T. J., Lychagin, M. Y., Bashkin, V. N., Sisengalieva, G., Yergaliyev, T. (2004). Ecological Function of the North Caspian Sea Production, Nutrients And Pollutants [abstract]. 89th Annual Meeting, Ecological Society Of America, p. 500... 

Nagle DG, Paul VJ (1999) Production of secondary metabolites by filamentous tropical marine cyanobacteria ecological functions of the compounds. J Phycol 35 1412-1421 Nagle DG, Camacho FT, Paul VJ (1998) Dietary preferences of the opisthobranch mollusc Stylocheilus longicauda for secondary metabolites produced by the tropical cyanobacterium Lyngbya majuscula. Mar Biol 132 267-273... 

Koivikko R, Loponen J, Honkanen T, Jormalainen V (2005) Contents of soluble, cell-wall-bound and exuded phlorotannins in the brown alga Fucus vesiculosus, with implications on their ecological functions. J Chem Ecol 31 195-212... 

In the field of fresh water plankton chemical ecology microcystins from cyanobacteria have stimulated much research and discussion. A critical reflection on the ecological function of these non-ribosomal peptides has recently been published (Babica et al. 2006). Surveys of methods for the quantification of these peptides (McElhiney and Lawton 2005 Msagati et al. 2006) and on the effects on fish (Malbrouck and Kestemont 2006) can be found as well. 

Ecological functions of aquatic ecosystems as habitats for self-regulating biological communities, and as elements in ecological networks that form landscapes. 

Dicke, M., Van Poecke, R. M. P. and De Boer, J. G. (2003). Inducible indirect defence of plants from mechanism to ecological functions. Basic and Applied Ecology 4 27-42. 

Oliveira, P. S. (1997). The ecological function of extrafloral nectaries herbivore deterrence by visiting ants and reproductive output in Caryocar brasiliense (Caryocaraceae). Functional Ecology 11 323-330. 

Williams, H.H. (1966) The ecology, functional morphology and taxonomy of Echeneibothrium Beneden, 1849 (Cestoda Tetraphyl lidea), a revision of the genus and comments on Discobothrium Beneden, 1870 Pseudanthobothrium Baer, 1956 and Phormobothrium Alexander, 1963. Parasitology 56, 227-285. 

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