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Ecosystem

What is an ecosystem
 All the living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) parts of an
environment as well as the interactions among them
 Ecosystems may be aquatic (water) or terrestrial (land).
 Interactions may include:
- producers (obtain energy by making their own
food; plants -photosynthesis)
- consumers (obtain energy by consuming their
food)
- decomposers ( get energy by breaking down dead
organisms and the wastes of living things); bacteria,
fungi (mold, mushrooms,etc) , some worms, termites,
some beetles, etc.

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Abiotic & Biotic Factors

 Abiotic Factors Biotic Factors

(nonliving) (living)
- water - Food
- sunlight - grass
- soil
- trees
- rocks
- animals, insects,
- nutrients
- oxygen/air, nitrogen - plants
- temperature/climate - bacteria, fungi
http://www.arkive.org/fungi//
- space, salinity, pH -

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Ecology is…

 the study of the interactions

between living organisms and
their biotic and abiotic
environments.
 Ecology is therefore the study
of the relationship of plants
and animals to their physical
and biological environment.

Three major principles of ecosystem

 Nutrient cycling:
 Movement of chemical elements from the
environment into living organisms and from them
back into the environment through organisms
live, grow, die and decompose.
 Energy flow:
 Energy is required to transform inorganic nutrients
into organic tissues of an organism.
 Energy is the driving force to the work of
ecosystem.
 Structure
 Itrefers to the particular pattern of inter-
relationships that exists between organisms in an
ecosystem.

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Nutrient cycling

Energy in the Ecosystem

 Plants absorb less than 1% of the sunlight
that reaches them!
 However, photosynthetic organisms make
170 billion metric tons of food each
year!
 The energy captured by producers is used
to make cells in both producers and
consumers.

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Energy flow

Structure

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Components of an ecosystem

Biotic components

 Producers (Autotrophs):
 Allgreen plants. They use solar energy,
chlorophyll, inorganic nutrients and water to
produce their own food. (Photosynthesis)
 Consumers:
 They consume the organic compounds in
plant and animal tissues by eating.
 Herbivores (plant feeders) Primary consumers
 Carnivores (meat eaters) Secondary consumers
 Omnivores (general feeders)

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Movement of energy :Food Webs

The sun provides energy

To sustain producers
which are the foundation
of all ecosystems.

Consumers

Only 10% of the energy moves

Produce food through up to the next trophic level.
photosynthesis

http://www.brainpop.com/games/foodchaingame/ “Food Chain Game”

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Trophic Levels
A trophic level means a feeding level.
 First level – all producers
 Second level – all herbivores
 Third level – first level carnivores
 Fourth level – second level carnivores
 So on……..

Trophic levels

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Biomass
 Biomass: the total amount of organic matter
present in a trophic level. The biomass in
each trophic level is the amount of energy- in
the form.
 The biomass of the first trophic level is the
total weight of all the producers in a given
area.
 Biomass decreases at higher trophic levels.

The Ten Percent Law

 Most of the energy that enters through
organisms in a trophic level does not
become biomass. Only energy used to
make biomass remains available to the
next level.

 When all of the energy losses are

added together, only about 10% of the
energy entering one trophic level forms
biomass in the next trophic level. This
is known as the 10 percent law.

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MORE Ten Percent Law

 The 10 percent law is the main reason that
most food chains have five or less links.
Because 90 percent of the food chain’s energy
is lost at each level, the amount of available
energy decreases quickly.

10 PERCENT
LAW!!

Linkages and Interactions in

an ecosystem
 Carbon and Oxygen cycle
 Nitrogen cycle
 A model of nutrient cycle

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Nitrogen Cycle

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Nitrogen cycle
 Nitrogen
cycle can be affected by man in five
major ways:
 Fertilizer production (mainly nitrates and ammonium salts)
to grow more food by increasing yields, and replenishing
lost nitrogen from the soil.
 Burning of fossil fuels in cars, power plants, and heating
which puts nitrogen dioxide into the atmosphere.
 Increasing animals wastes (nitrates) from more people
and from livestock and poultry.
 Increased sewage flows from industry and urbanization.
 Increased erosion of and runoff from cultivation, irrigation,
agricultural wastes, mining, urbanization and poor land
use.

 What disruptions may occur

leading to a change in the
physical (nonliving/abiotic)
components in an
ecosystem?

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