by Bob Mesi­bov — If you stud­ied the tra­di­tional sort of bi­ol­ogy, you're prob­a­bly car­ry­ing around an un­for­tu­nate prej­u­dice. You see ter­res­trial habi­tats as a sim­pli­fied nu­tri­ents-and-en­ergy pyra­mid. At the bot­tom are green plants, feed­ing on sun­light, car­bon diox­ide and soil wa­ter and min­er­als. Next layer up on the pyra­mid is...