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Is ecological threshold sometimes called inflection point?
What is ecoline?

I found this definition in a book: It is a spatial environmental factor gradient and plant community gradient considered together.

I found a different definition too, that said it is the rate of genetic change that occurs in an environment due to the merging of different varieties of a plant species.This doesn't make sense to me. One cannot measure the rate of genetic change.

Which one is right?
What are examples of ecological parameters?

I think an ecological parameter is:
A variable, measurable property whose value is a determinant of the characteristics of an ecosystem.
(From eea.europa.eu)
But what could these parameters be? In other words, what are some examples of 'parameters'? Can they be both abiotic(e.g.amount of rainfall) and biotic(e.g.species diversity)?
I assume they possibly vary with ecosystem.

P.S. This question is related to my last one. I actually wanted to replace it but it was too late for that. I will appreciate if you answered this one for I have figured out what ecological factors are.
How is ecological parameter different from ecological factor? Could you explain with example?
I came across Lindeman's 10% law in school.
I was reading Ecology: Principles and Applications By J. L. Chapman, M. J. Reiss and they mentioned two contradictory statements:

1. The 10% law, i.e. the trophic efficiency is always 10%
2. The trophic efficiency increases with trophic level (which was substantiated by data).

This is the statistics:

http://dropcanvas.com/sfe7p

What is right? Is Lindeman's 10% law actually valid?
What are the basic principles of energy flow in an ecosystem?

Is it the two laws of thermodynamics and 10% law as well?
This diagram is widely copied in books and in websites. It's been taken from Odum(1956).

There's a problem I find at the bottom of the diagram. The energy content of carnivores (Trophic level 3) is shown 0.3 units which I think is supposed to be 0.015 units according to 10% law.

http://dropcanvas.com/utpn2

It is quite unusual that a diagram that is largely redrawn will have a mistake in it. I'm a unaware of something that the diagram shows?
Can assimilated energy be simply lost from a trophic level?

I was reading Environmental Studies By B. S. Chauhan and there a diagram of a model of transfer of energy.

Here's a link to it: http://dropcanvas.com/8r3h5

NU = Not used energy has been shown, energy that was neither stored or exported to the next level.

I wonder what physiological process causes this loss of energy at all trophic levels?
I'm struggling with the Universal mole of energy flow.

Here's a link: http://dropcanvas.com/u3nij/1 with the question and the diagram.

Here's the link to the book I'm referring to: https://books.google.co.in/books?id=7MHHp2Bg44YC&pg=PA76&dq=universal+energy+flow+model&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGl7mh5LfRAhXLro8KHWUYBDIQ6AEIGTAA#v=onepage&q=universal%20energy%20flow%20model&f=false
Shelford’s Law of Tolerance states that the presence and success of an organism depend upon the completeness of a complex of conditions. Absence or failure of an organism can be controlled by qualitative or quantitative deficiency or excess with respect to any one of the several factors, which may approach the limits of tolerance for that organism. (Odum, 1971)

What I understand is the survival and distribution of a species is affected or rather controlled by the lower and upper limits of tolerance of a certain enviornmental (physio-chemical) factor e.g. Temperature.
What I don't understand is: what is meant by ''completeness of a complex of conditions'' and
''controlled by QUALITATIVE or QUANTITATIVE deficiency or excess''
When we put together these two things what does this law mean?
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