You are preparing for an ecological safari to the Sandwich Islands. The Sandwich Islands consist of eight major islands, several atolls, numerous smaller islets and seamounts in the North Pacific Ocean. On which island, atoll, islet or seamount are you expecting to find the greatest species richness

from my research i have to the conclusion that decomposers, such as fungi, bacteria and invertebrates, play a critical role in nutrient cycling and without them the earth's ecosystem may not support life as we know it. elements such as carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus exist in limited amounts on earth, although huge amounts of carbon are being released into the atmosphere from underground sources now by humans. it is still extremely important that other nutrients be retained by the process of re-use. decomposers are organisms that are able to chemically break down dead material and make these elements available for use by other organisms. without this breakdown of dead material, dead bodies would pile up. so decomposers also play a role in clean up also. without them, life might not continue as we know it and dead material would overwhelm the earth.    

many other transport proteins, often called pumps, move materials against a concentration gradient. active transport drives molecules across a membrane from a region of lower concentration to a region of higher concentration. this process, shown in figure 5.1, uses transport proteins powered by chemi- cal energy.