Ootp baseball the wolf stats only12/30/2023 ![]() Often, the ridge tops and south-facing hillsides are clear of snow, a result of wind and sun. Elevations are lower, and the area receives less snow than elsewhere in the park. Many of the park’s ungulates spend the winter here. This area sustains one of the largest and most diverse communities of free-roaming large animals seen anywhere on Earth. These cycles and processes are easily and frequently observed on Yellowstone’s northern range, which refers to the broad grassland that borders the Yellowstone and Lamar rivers in the northern portion of the park and into Montana. Fires recycle and release nutrients and create dead trees or snags that serve a number of ecological functions, such as the addition of organic matter to the soil when the trees decompose. After fire sweeps through an area, mammals, birds, and insects quickly take advantage of the newly created habitats. Some cones of lodgepole pines pop open only in heat generated by fires, spreading millions of seeds on the forest floor. Some species of plants survive the intense burning to re-sprout. Fires rejuvenate forests on a grand scale. A wildland fire is one example of an integral, dynamic process. The ecosystem is constantly changing and evolving. Decomposers-bacteria, fungi, other microorganisms-connect all that dies with all that is alive. Herbivores, from ephydrid flies to elk, feed on the plants and, in turn, provide food for predators like coyotes and hawks. Plants draw energy from the sun and cycle nutrients such as carbon, sulfur, and nitrogen through the system. Microbes beneath Yellowstone Lake thrive in hydrothermal vents where they obtain energy from sulfur instead of the sun. ![]() Living things absorb, transform, and circulate energy and raw materials and release them again. ![]() Photosynthesis, predation, decomposition, climate, and precipitation facilitate the flow of energy and raw materials. Cycles and processes are essential connections within an ecosystem.
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