ECOSYSTEMS

(Ecological Systems)
ECOLOGY
the scientific study of relationships between organisms and their
environment
EcologyGreek oikos meaning house
Study of how organisms interact with one another and their non-living
environment (biotic and abiotic components)
Studies connections in nature on the thin life supporting membrane of air,
water, and soil
Levels of Organization of Matter
o Subatomic to biosphere
SYSTEMS Approach of Ecology: holistic view about the interconnections that
make the whole system more than just the sum of the individual parts
Definition of Terms
Biological Community consists of all the populations living and
interacting in an area
Population consists of all members of a specie that live in the same area
at the same time
Species (kind) all organisms that are genetically similar enough to breed
and produce live, fertile offspring in nature
Niche way of life of an organism and its relationship with its environment
Habitat place where the organism actually lives e.g., lion in a savanna,
cactus in the desert, monkey in a rainforest
Biome is a large area with similar flora, fauna, and microorganisms.
Examples: Tropical rainforests, tundra in the arctic regions
Major Biomes:
Mountains
Tundra
Temperate Forest
Marine/Island
Desert
Tropical Dry Forest
Cold Climate Forest
Grassland/Savannah
Tropical Rain Forest
Earths Life Support Systems
Troposphere
o To 11 miles
o Air is here
Stratosphere
o 11 to 30 miles
o Ozone layer
Hydrosphere
o Solid, liquid, and gaseous water
Lithosphere
o Crust and upper mantle
o Contains non-renewable res.
Ecosystem a specific biological community and its physical environment
interacting in an exchange of matter and energy
o Note: An ecosystem is much smaller than a biome. Conversely, a
biome can be thought of many similar ecosystems throughout the
world grouped together. An ecosystem can be as large as the Sahara
Desert, or as small as a puddle or vernal pool.
o Ecosystems will fail if they do not remain in balance.
o An ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant, animal and microorganism communities and their non-living environment
interacting as a functional unit.
The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD)
o An ecosystem is composed of:
Biotic factors livings parts (animals, plants, microorganisms)

Abiotic factors nonliving parts (temperature, sunlight,

humidity, water supply, soil types, mineral nutrients like
nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur)
In ecosystems, everything is connected
Humans have affected ecosystems by disrupting the food chain, the
carbon cycle, the nitrogen cycle, the water cycle, etc. causing
imbalance

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Ecosystem Organization
Organisms
o Made of cells
o Eukaryotic vs Prokaryotic
Species
o Groups of organisms that resemble one another in appearance,
behavior, and genetic make up
o Sexual vs Asexual reproduction
o Production of viable offspring in nature
o 1.5 million named; 10-14 million likely
Populations
o Genetic diversity
Communities
Ecosystems
Biosphere
Types of Ecosystems
Marine Ecosystems
Coastal Ecosystems
Lowland Ecosystems*
Upland Ecosystems*
Forest Ecosystems*
o Terrestrial biomes
Major Ecosystem Components
Abiotic Components
o Water, air, temperature, soil, light levels, precipitation, salinity
o Sets tolerance limits for populations and communities
o Some are limiting factors that structure the abundance of populations
Biotic Components
o Producers, consumers, decomposers
o Plants, animals, bacteria/fungi
Biotic interactions with biotic components include predation,
competition, symbiosis, parasitism, commensalism etc.
Limiting Factors on Land & in H2O
Terrestrial
o Sunlight
o Temperature
o Precipitation
o Soil nutrients
o Fire frequency
o Wind
o Latitude
o Altitude
Aquatic/Marine
o Light penetration
Water clarity
o Water currents
o Dissolved nutrient concentrations
Esp. N, P, Fe
o Dissolved Oxygen concentration
o Salinity

WATER ECOSYSTEMS

Marine ecosystems - biological communities in oceans and seas

Oceans : 75% of earths surface
Photosynthetic plants (phytoplankton) support marine food web
Ocean systems may be classified into:
Benthic communities bottom
Pelagic communities zones at the water column; may be
epilagic (top), mesopelagic (medium) and bathypelagic (deep
zone)

Estuaries an ecosystem in which fresh water from rivers mixes with salt
water from the ocean (habitat of horseshoe crabs)
Threats to estuaries: dumping of wastes like sewage, industrial waste
containing toxic chemicals
Coral Reefs limestone islands that are built by coral animals with the help
of photosynthetic algae; these are found in shallow tropical seas and support
a great diversity of species
Threats: oil spills, sewage, pesticide, silt runoff
Coastal ecosystems - boundary systems between water and land
Wetlands in coastal areas can be classified into three basic types:
mangroves, salt marshes, and freshwater tidal marshes.
Swamps are wetlands with trees
Marshes are wetlands without trees
Freshwater Ecosystems
Lakes
Wetlands
Streams
Rivers
Lowland and Upland Ecosystems are classified according to their relative
distance from water sources

FOREST ECOSYSTEM
Tropical Rain Forests near the equator
Temperate Rain Forests North and South America, Australia and
New Zealand
Temperate Deciduous Forests North America
Taiga northern coniferous forest; terrain is rough and forest floor is
sparsely vegetated
Note : Differences in vegetation determined by the climate

Climate the weather condition in an area which includes temperature,

precipitation, humidity, and winds, over a long period of time

POLAR ECOSYSTEM
in the North and South Poles can be considered marine
ecosystems because all food is provided by phytoplanktons
Arctic Ocean : seals, polar bears, birds
Antarctic Ocean: whales, penguins
Threats to polar ecosystems:
Increase in tourism and the garbage that is left behind
Interaction of Species
Major types
Predation one organism eats and kills another (predator/prey:
snakes/mice, birds/insects)
Competition where species attempt to use the same limited
resource (hyenas and lions)
Parasitism organisms that live in or on another organism and feed
on it without immediately killing it (ticks and dog)
Mutualism cooperative partnership between two species (acacia
trees and ants)
Commensalism where one species benefits and the other is neither
harmed or helped (remora and sharks)
Adaptation to the Environment
Darwins Theory of Natural Selection (the unequal survival and
reproduction that results from the presence or absence of particular traits) is
responsible for evolution
Coevolution when two or more species evolve in response to each other
Extinction the irreversible disappearance of a population or a specie
Energy Flow in Ecosystems
Almost all organisms get energy from the sun: producers get energy directly
from the sun while consumers, indirectly
In deep ocean ecosystems, photosynthesis cannot occur because of the
absence of sunlight; instead, bacteria make food for the other organisms
(without sunlight) from other materials present
Energy transfers occur through an ecosystem via the food chain, foodweb
and trophic levels
Food chain a sequence in which energy is transferred from one organism
to the next, as each organism eats another
Food web shows the feeding relationship in an ecosystem
Trophic level refers to each step of energy transfer through an ecosystem
Organisms in a foodweb can be identified as primary producers or
consumers
Organisms can be classified also as herbivores, carnivores,
omnivores, scavengers, detritivores, or decomposers


ffects of Energy Loss on an ecosystem: decrease amount of energy at each
trophic level
Results in fewer organisms at the higher trophic levels
Places a limit on the number of trophic levels in an ecosystem
Note: Ecosystems seldom have four or five trophic levels