Main content
Middle school biology - NGSS
Humans and ecosystems: how do vultures provide ecosystem services?
Changes in biodiversity can influence humans’ resources, such as food, energy, and medicines, as well as ecosystem services that humans rely on—for example, water purification and recycling. Created by Khan Academy.
Want to join the conversation?
- since lammergeier eats wild animal bones do you think lammergeier eat human bones?(9 votes)
- Definitely, bones are bones, our bones may be a bit stronger but I’m not sure about them being stronger. From what it sounded like they could eat human bones too.(3 votes)
- Would sunlight be considered a supporting ecosystem service?(4 votes)
- Actually, I think it would be considered a provisional ecosystem service because it is a natural energy source.(11 votes)
- do bones go extinct?(4 votes)
- What if I eat an iguana would I start changing colors(3 votes)
- No, but you can change your skin to artificially change colors with the help of nanomachines, though I have no idea why you want to do that. Probably expensive, too.(2 votes)
- Ecosystem service is the same as community service if you think about it.(3 votes)
- At, can respiration be counted in Supporting Ecosystem Services? 2:31(3 votes)
- what if animals start to die less often but there is a significant spike in the vulture population what happens in this scenario(3 votes)
- If there are many vultures, but not much food for them to eat, then there is going to be lots of competition between them. Also, many vultures would starve, decreasing the vulture population.(1 vote)
- What if vultures go extinct? Would everything be unhealthy? Would air,water,and soil be unsafe to be around/in?(2 votes)
- Well, I don’t know about everything being contaminated, but many more things would be. Even though there may be other species who are scavengers, I don’t think it would be the same without them. Short answer is yes, a lot more places would have unsafe water and soil. Long answer is not really, but it would still cause damage(3 votes)
- what if most of the carrcases sart to die down too?(2 votes)
- I'm not entirely sure what you are asking but I believe you're asking "What happens if most of the carcasses die down too". A carcass is the dead body of an organism, so a carcass cannot "die" as it is already dead.
Hope this helped! Let me know if you have any other questions.(4 votes)
- what if there were 0 [zero] vultures(2 votes)
- A lot of ecosystems would be infected, dead, declining in biodiversity and a lot more. It would not be a good thing at all. Even though there are other species that may do things similar to vultures, it still would not be the same(2 votes)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] Can you imagine
eating bones for breakfast? It sounds crunchy and pretty gross, but that's exactly what
the lammergeier eats. The lammergeier is a scavenger, which means it eats the decaying flush and bones of dead animals. Rotting animal carcasses can
be full of harmful substances, including toxins produced by bacteria. These toxins can cause serious
health issues in humans. However, the vultures
have evolved an incredibly acidic digestive system, allowing them to eat deceased carcasses
without becoming sick. The lammergeier's
stomach acid is so acidic that it can digest most
bones in about 24 hours. Vultures are essential
to keeping our ecosystems and us healthy by getting
rid of harmful substances that could contaminate
soil, water or food. Carcass cleanup by vultures is something we call an ecosystem
service, which is a way that we humans benefit from ecosystems. There are many different
kinds of ecosystem services, which can be sorted into four categories. First, we have provisional
ecosystem services, which are the resources
that are provided by nature that we can use or eat, like
fruits, vegetables\ and fish. Provisional ecosystem
services also include clean drinking water, timber, oils, some medicines and natural energy sources. We also have regulating
ecosystem services, which are all the processes that help keep ecosystems healthy and functional. These include bacteria and
invertebrates decomposing or breaking down waste,
bees and hummingbirds pollinating all kinds of plants and trees and other plants holding soil together with their root systems to help with flood control and
to stop soil erosion, and, of course, regulating
ecosystem services also include our friends, the vultures, who help with carcass
removal and disease control. Ecosystems wouldn't work without supporting ecosystem services. These are the underlying natural processes that are the foundation of ecosystems and without them, we wouldn't
be able to breathe air, drink clean water or grow food. Take photosynthesis for example. When plants use sunlight, water and carbon dioxide to
make sugars and oxygen. Without photosynthesis, we
wouldn't have enough oxygen in our atmosphere to
breathe, and we wouldn't have all the foods that we get from plants, like fruits, seeds, and nuts. Other supporting
ecosystem services include the water cycle, the nutrient cycle and even soil formation and finally, we also have cultural ecosystem services. Have you ever visited or seen
photos of the Grand Canyon, the Redwoods in California
or Yellowstone National Park? These are incredible
landscapes that provide a lot of meaning and inspiration to us. Think about the art and music that gets made about different ecosystems. Maybe you've heard Dolly Parton's "My Tennessee Mountain Home." She couldn't have written that song about any other part of the country. You might have hobbies that
you enjoy doing outside too. For me, I love bird-watching and learning about all of the different bird species that I can see where I live, and that's a cultural ecosystem service. Plus, ecosystems have religious, spiritual and historical value for
diverse groups of people. For example, American-Indian
tribes have deep ancestral and spiritual connections to
many North-American ecosystems. So ecosystems also play an important role in maintaining the richness and diversity of people's cultures and
societies of our world, but a loss of biodiversity can
make ecosystems less healthy, which makes it harder for
us to get the resources and ecosystem services we rely on. Vultures might be able to eat
all kinds of nasty toxins, but they can get sick and die
from human-made chemicals. For example, diclofenac,
a common veterinary drug used to treat cattle, will
unfortunately kill vultures if they eat it from a cow carcass. Vulture populations have declined by 95% in parts of the world, and that's caused some pretty big problems in ecosystems. With fewer vultures around
to clean up carcasses, diseases can quickly spread,
and bacteria from the carcasses can contaminate
surrounding soil and water. In turn, people can get
very sick when vultures and others scavengers aren't around to keep the ecosystem healthy. So the next time you see a
vulture gliding through the sky, take a moment to think about
how that species is helping to keep the ecosystem
clean and healthy for all. Through cleaning up
carcasses and eating bones, vultures play an important
role conserving the health of our ecosystems by transforming
death and decay into life.