Concerns grow that environmental disruption of marine mutualisms exacerbates ecosystem degradation, with breakdown of the obligate coral mutualism ("coral bleaching") being an iconic example [2, 4, 5].
The ecological mechanisms contributing to this transformation are not fully understood but are believed to include the breakdown of ecosystem processes including litter production and decomposition, which are rate-limiting steps in nutrient cycling and incorporation of organic matter into the soil.
Soils and soil organisms provide a multitude of ecosystem services, including waste breakdown, release of nutrients, enhancement of soil structure and biodegradation of pesticides and other chemicals; in addition, they act as a sink for greenhouse gas emissions and fight pests and soil-borne plant pathogens, benefiting human and animal health including digestion and immunity.
Non-excludability of these services limits direct marketing whose scarcity would provide warning sign of degradation and insufficiency unless there's total breakdown of ecosystems providing the service.
Organic dyes are typical water pollutants as the by-products of modern textile industry, which result in the breakdown of water ecosystem and greatly threaten the public health because they are potentially carcinogenic and cause various chronic diseases [1 3].
Andersson, A. J. & Gledhill, D. Ocean acidification and coral reefs: effects on breakdown, dissolution, and net ecosystem calcification.
In fact, our highly processed, high-sugar, high-fat, low-fiber diet - plus many drugs like antibiotics, steroids, anti-inflammatories, acid-blockers, and hormones - completely alters the bacterial ecosystem in the gut, leading to breakdown, inflammation, and a leaky gut.
Our results suggest woody debris breakdown in desert riverine ecosystems is primarily a microbial process with rates determined by landscape position, local weather, and especially the regional climate through its effect on the flow regime.
In forest ecosystems they are largely responsible for breakdown of the abundant large biopolymers cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, and chitin [2].
