{"id":353,"date":"2018-01-18T19:01:31","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T19:01:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-nmbiology2\/?post_type=chapter&#038;p=353"},"modified":"2024-04-26T23:11:36","modified_gmt":"2024-04-26T23:11:36","slug":"introduction-to-the-ecology-of-protists","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-nmbiology2\/chapter\/introduction-to-the-ecology-of-protists\/","title":{"raw":"Introduction to the Ecology of Protists","rendered":"Introduction to the Ecology of Protists"},"content":{"raw":"<h2>What you'll learn to do: Describe the role that protists play in the ecosystem<\/h2>\r\nProtists function in various ecological niches. Whereas some protist species are essential components of the food chain and generators of biomass, others function in the decomposition of organic materials. Still other protists are dangerous human pathogens or causative agents of devastating plant diseases.\r\n\r\nThe key point to remember is that protists have a wide impact on the ecosystem as well as the biosphere. Oxygen levels on the planet wouldn\u2019t be where they are without plant-like protists going through photosynthesis. There are protists vital to the nitrogen cycle as well as decomposition and recycling of dead organic matter. Science is only now learning the true impact of the group Protista.","rendered":"<h2>What you&#8217;ll learn to do: Describe the role that protists play in the ecosystem<\/h2>\n<p>Protists function in various ecological niches. Whereas some protist species are essential components of the food chain and generators of biomass, others function in the decomposition of organic materials. Still other protists are dangerous human pathogens or causative agents of devastating plant diseases.<\/p>\n<p>The key point to remember is that protists have a wide impact on the ecosystem as well as the biosphere. Oxygen levels on the planet wouldn\u2019t be where they are without plant-like protists going through photosynthesis. There are protists vital to the nitrogen cycle as well as decomposition and recycling of dead organic matter. Science is only now learning the true impact of the group Protista.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-353\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Introduction to the Ecology of Protists. <strong>Authored by<\/strong>: Steven Mezik. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Shared previously<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Biology. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: OpenStax CNX. <strong>Located at<\/strong>: <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/185cbf87-c72e-48f5-b51e-f14f21b5eabd@10.8\">http:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/185cbf87-c72e-48f5-b51e-f14f21b5eabd@10.8<\/a>. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em>. <strong>License Terms<\/strong>: Download for free at http:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/185cbf87-c72e-48f5-b51e-f14f21b5eabd@10.8<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":17,"menu_order":7,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Introduction to the Ecology of Protists\",\"author\":\"Steven Mezik\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"},{\"type\":\"cc\",\"description\":\"Biology\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"OpenStax CNX\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/185cbf87-c72e-48f5-b51e-f14f21b5eabd@10.8\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"Download for free at http:\/\/cnx.org\/contents\/185cbf87-c72e-48f5-b51e-f14f21b5eabd@10.8\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"7be90124-8234-4c76-bd44-0ba00d73a5de","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-353","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":285,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-nmbiology2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-nmbiology2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-nmbiology2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-nmbiology2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-nmbiology2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3127,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-nmbiology2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/353\/revisions\/3127"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-nmbiology2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/285"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-nmbiology2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/353\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-nmbiology2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-nmbiology2\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-nmbiology2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=353"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/wm-nmbiology2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}