What Is An Ecosystem

 An ecosystem is a natural unit

consisting of all plants, animals and
micro-organisms (biotic factors) in an
area functioning together with all of the
non-living physical (abiotic) factors of
the environment.
 Aquatic systems are those that contain
Examples
plants Of Ecosystem
and animals that predominantly
depend on Include:
a significant amount of
water to be present for at least part of
the year.
 CHAPARRAL
• A dense, impenetrable thicket of
shrubs or dwarf trees. A vegetation
type dominated by shrubs and small
trees, especially evergreen trees with
thick, small leaves.
 CORAL REEF
A large underwater formation
created from the calcium
carbonate skeletons of coral
animals; can also refer to the
animals living on and near the
coral reef.
 DESERT
 A desert is a landscape form or region
that receives very little precipitation.
Deserts can be defined as areas that
receive an average annual precipitation
of less than 250 mm (10 in), or as areas
in which more water is lost than falls as
precipitation.In the Köppen climate
classification system, deserts are
classed as BWh (hot desert) or BWk
(temperate desert).
 GREATER YELLOWSTONE
ECOSYSTEM
 Greater Yellowstone is the last remaining
large, nearly intact ecosystem in the northern
temperate zone of the Earth and is partly
located in Yellowstone National Park.
Conflict over management has been
controversial, and the area is a flagship site
among conservation groups that promote
ecosystem management. The Greater Yellow
Ecosystem (GYE) is one of the world's
foremost natural laboratories in landscape
ecology and geology and is a world-
renowned recreational site. It is also home to
the animals of Yellowstone.
 HUMAN ECOSYSTEM
 Human ecosystems are complex cybernetic
systems that are increasingly being used by
ecological anthropologists and other
scholars to examine the ecological aspects
of human communities in a way that
integrates multiple factors as economics,
socio-political organization, psychological
factors, and physical factors related to the
environment.
LARGE MARINE ECOSYSTEM
 Any marine environment, from pond to
ocean, in which plants and animals
interact with the chemical and physical
features on the environment.
 LITTORAL ZONE
 The region of the shore of a lake or sea
or ocean / the shore of a sea or ocean.
 MARINE ECOSYSTEM
 Any marine environment, from pond to
ocean, in which plants and animals
interact with the chemical and physical
features of the environment.
 RAINFOREST
 Mixed rainforest or mixed forest) is a
rainforest classification where eucalypt
forest grows in combination with Cool
Temperate rainforest species.
 SAVANNA
• A tropical or subtropical grassland
containing scattered trees and drought-
resistant undergrowth.
SUBSURFACE LITHOAUTOTROPHIC
MICROBIAL ECOSYSTEM
 A minute life form; a microorganism,
especially a bacterium that causes
disease.
 TAIGA
• A moist sub arctic coniferous forest
that begins where the tundra ends and
is dominated by spruces and firs.
 TUNDRA
• A type of ecosystem dominated by
lichens, mosses, grasses, and woody
plants. Tundra is found at high
latitudes (arctic tundra) and high
altitudes
• A treeless plain characteristic of the
arctic and sub arctic regions.
 URBAN ECOSYSTEM
 Is the subfield of ecology which deals with the
interaction of plants, animals and humans with
each other and with their environment in urban or
urbanizing settings. Analysis of urban settings in
the context of ecosystem ecology (looking at the
cycling of matter and the flow of energy through
the ecosystem) can result in healthier, better
managed communities. Studying the factors which
allow wild plants and animals to survive (and
sometimes thrive) in built environments can also
create more livable spaces. It allows people to
adapt to the changing environment while
preserving the resources.
 • The diagram
above shows
how both
energy and
inorganic
Energy Flow Through the Ecosystem
nutrients flow
through the
ecosystem.
The dark arrows represent the movement
of this energy .
The movement of the inorganic nutrients
is represented by the open arrows.
To summarize: In the flow of energy and
inorganic nutrients through the ecosystem, a
few generalizations can be made:
1. The ultimate source of energy (for most
ecosystems) is the sun
2. The ultimate fate of energy in ecosystems is
for it to be lost as heat.
3. Energy and nutrients are passed from
organism to organism through the food chain
as one organism eats another.
4. Decomposers remove the last energy from
the remains of organisms.
5. Inorganic nutrients are cycled, energy is not.
 Food Chains and Webs:
• A food chain is the path of food from a given final
consumer back to a producer. For instance, a typical
food chain in a field ecosystem might be:

grass grasshopper mouse snake hawk

The real world, of course, is more complicated

than a simple food chain. While many organisms
do specialize in their diets (anteaters come to
mind as a specialist), other organisms do not.
Hawks don't limit their diets to snakes; snakes
eat things other than mice. Mouse eats grass as
well as grasshoppers, and so on.
A more realistic depiction of who eats whom is
called a food, web; an example is shown
below:

 It is when we have a picture of a food web in front

of us that the definition of food chain makes more
sense. We can now see that a food web consists of
interlocking food chains, and that the only way to
untangle the chains is to trace back along a given
food chain to its source.
• The food webs you see here are grazing food
chains since at their base are producers which
the herbivores then graze on. While grazing
food chains are important, in nature they are
outnumbered by detritus-based food chains. In
detritus-based food chains, decomposers are at
the base of the food chain, and sustain the
carnivores which feed on them. In terms of the
weight (or biomass) of animals in many
ecosystems, more of their body mass can be
traced back to detritus than to living producers.
 PYRAMIDS
• The concept of
biomass is
important.

It is a general principle that the further

removed a trophic level is from its source
(detritus or producer), the less biomass it will
contain (biomass here would refer to the
combined weight of all the organisms in the
trophic level).
This Reduction In Biomass Occurs
For Several Reasons:

1. Not everything in the lower levels

gets eaten.
2. Not everything that is eaten is
digested.
3. energy is always being lost as heat.
• It is important to remember that the decrease
in number is best detected in terms or
biomass. Numbers of organisms are
unreliable in this case because of the great
variation in the biomass of individual
organisms.

• A generalization exists among ecologists that

on average, about 10% of the energy
available in one trophic level will be passed
on to the next; this is primarily due to the 3
reasons given above. Therefore, it is also
reasonable to assume that in terms of
biomass, each trophic level will weigh only
about 10% of the level below it, and 10x as
much as the level above it.
 Roles Of Organisms In An
Ecosystem
• Organisms can be either producers or consumers
in terms of energy flow through an ecosystem.

• Producers convert energy from the environment

into carbon bonds, such as those found in the
sugar glucose. Plants are the most obvious
examples of producers; plants take energy from
sunlight and use it to convert carbon dioxide into
glucose (or other sugars). Algae and cyanobacteria
are also photosynthetic producers, like plants.
Other producers include bacteria living around
deep-sea vents. These bacteria take energy from
chemicals coming from the Earth's interior and use
it to make sugars. Other bacteria living deep
underground can also produce sugars from such
inorganic sources. Another word for producers is
autotrophs.
Consumers get their energy from the carbon bonds made by
the producers. Another word for a consumer is a
heterotroph. Based on what they eat, we can distinguish
between 4 types of heterotrophs:

consumer trophic level food source

Herbivores primary plants
Carnivores secondary or higher animals
Omnivores all levels plants &
animals
Detritivores ----------- detritus

• A trophic level refers to the organisms

position in the food chain.
• Autotrophs are at the base. Organisms that
eat autotrophs are called herbivores or
primary consumers.
• An organism that eats herbivores is a carnivore
and a secondary consumer.
• A carnivore which eats a carnivore which eats a
herbivore is a tertiary consumer, and so on.
• It is important to note that many animals do not
specialize in their diets.
• Omnivores (such as humans) eat both animals and
plants. Further, except for some specialists, most
carnivores don't limit their diet to organisms of
only one trophic level. Frogs, for instance, don't
discriminate between herbivorous and
carnivorous bugs in their diet. If it's the right size,
and moving at the right distance, chances are the
frog will eat it. It's not as if the frog has brain cells
to waste wondering if it's going to mess up the
food chain by being a secondary consumer one
minute and a quaternary consumer the next.
Components of an Ecosystem
ABIOTIC COMPONENTS BIOTIC COMPONENTS
Sunlight Primary producers
Temperature Herbivores
Precipitation Carnivores
Water or moisture Omnivores
Soil or water chemistry (e.g.,
P, NH4+) Detritivores

etc. etc.
All of these vary over space/time
 Processes of Ecosystems
• This figure with the plants, zebra, lion,
and so forth illustrates the two main
ideas about how ecosystems
function: ecosystems have energy
flows and ecosystems cycle
materials. These two processes are
linked, but they are not quite the
same (see Figure 1).
• Figure 1. Energy flows and material cycles.
• Energy enters the biological system as light energy,
or photons, is transformed into chemical energy in
organic molecules by cellular processes including
photosynthesis and respiration, and ultimately is
converted to heat energy. This energy is dissipated,
meaning it is lost to the system as heat; once it is lost
it cannot be recycled. Without the continued input of
solar energy, biological systems would quickly shut
down. Thus the earth is an open system with respect
to energy.28
• During decomposition these materials are not
destroyed or lost, so the earth is a closed
system with respect to elements (with the
exception of a meteorite entering the system
now and then). The elements are cycled
endlessly between their biotic and abiotic states
within ecosystems. Those elements whose
supply tends to limit biological activity are called
nutrients.
The Transformation of
Energy
• The transformations of energy
in an ecosystem begin first
with the input of energy from
the sun. Energy from the sun
is captured by the process of
photosynthesis. Carbon
dioxide is combined with
hydrogen (derived from the
splitting of water molecules) to
produce carbohydrates (CHO).
Energy is stored in the high
energy bonds of adenosine
triphosphate, or ATP (see
lecture on photosynthesis).
• Figure 2 portrays a simple food chain, in which energy from
the sun, captured by plant photosynthesis, flows from
trophic level to trophic level via the food chain. A trophic
level is composed of organisms that make a living in the
same way, that is they are all primary producers (plants),
primary consumers (herbivores) or secondary consumers
(carnivores). Dead tissue and waste products are produced
at all levels. Scavengers, detritivores, and decomposers
collectively account for the use of all such "waste" --
consumers of carcasses and fallen leaves may be other
animals, such as crows and beetles, but ultimately it is the
microbes that finish the job of decomposition. Not
surprisingly, the amount of primary production varies a
great deal from place to place, due to differences in the
amount of solar radiation and the availability of nutrients
and water.
• For reasons that we will explore more fully in subsequent
lectures, energy transfer through the food chain is
inefficient. This means that less energy is available at the
herbivore level than at the primary producer level, less yet
at the carnivore level, and so on. The result is a pyramid of
energy, with important implications for understanding the
quantity of life that can be supported.
• Usually when we think of food chains we visualize green
plants, herbivores, and so on. These are referred to as
grazer food chains, because living plants are directly
consumed. In many circumstances the principal energy
input is not green plants but dead organic matter. These
are called detritus food chains. Examples include the
forest floor or a woodland stream in a forested area, a salt
marsh, and most obviously, the ocean floor in very deep
areas where all sunlight is extinguished 1000's of meters
above. In subsequent lectures we shall return to these
important issues concerning energy flow.
• Finally, although we have been talking about food chains,
in reality the organization of biological systems is much
more complicated than can be represented by a simple
"chain". There are many food links and chains in an
ecosystem, and we refer to all of these linkages as a food
web. Food webs can be very complicated, where it
appears that "everything is connected to everything else",
and it is important to understand what are the most
important linkages in any particular food web.
 Controls on Ecosystem Function
• There are two dominant theories of the control of
ecosystems. The first, called bottom-up control, states
that it is the nutrient supply to the primary producers that
ultimately controls how ecosystems function. If the
nutrient supply is increased, the resulting increase in
production of autotrophs is propagated through the food
web and all of the other trophic levels will respond to the
increased availability of food (energy and materials will
cycle faster).
• The second theory, called top-down control, states that
predation and grazing by higher trophic levels on lower
trophic levels ultimately controls ecosystem function. For
example, if you have an increase in predators, that
increase will result in fewer grazers, and that decrease in
grazers will result in turn in more primary producers
because fewer of them are being eaten by the grazers.
Thus the control of population numbers and overall
productivity "cascades" from the top levels of the food
chain down to the bottom trophic levels.
 The Geography of Ecosystems
• There are many different ecosystems: rain forests
and tundra, coral reefs and ponds, grasslands and
deserts. Climate differences from place to place
largely determine the types of ecosystems we see.
How terrestrial ecosystems appear to us is
influenced mainly by the dominant vegetation.
• The word "biome" is used to describe a major
vegetation type such as tropical rain forest,
grassland, tundra, etc., extending over a large
geographic area. It is never used for aquatic
systems, such as ponds or coral reefs. It always
refers to a vegetation category that is dominant over
a very large geographic scale, and so is somewhat
broader than an ecosystem.
 Figure 3: The distribution of biomes.
A schematic view of the earth shows that, complicated though climate
may be, many aspects are predictable (Figure 4). High solar energy
striking near the equator ensures nearly constant high temperatures
and high rates of evaporation and plant transpiration. Warm air rises,
cools, and sheds its moisture, creating just the conditions for a
tropical rain forest. Contrast the stable temperature but varying rainfall
of a site in Panama with the relatively constant precipitation but
seasonally changing temperature of a site in New York State. Every
location has a rainfall- temperature graph that is typical of a broader
region.
• Figure 4. Climate patterns
affect biome distributions.
• We can draw upon plant
physiology to know that
certain plants are distinctive of
certain climates, creating the
vegetation appearance that we
call biomes. Note how well the
distribution of biomes plots on
the distribution of climates
(Figure 5). Note also that some
climates are impossible, at
least on our planet. High
precipitation is not possible at
low temperatures -- there is
not enough solar energy to
power the water cycle, and
most water is frozen and thus
biologically unavailable
throughout the year. The high
tundra is as much a desert as
is the Sahara.
 What are the 2 kinds of
ecosystem?
• NATURAL ECOSYSTEM - ecosystem made naturally
& occurred naturally with no influence by man ( ex.
forest, backyard)
•
MAN-MADE ECOSYSTEM - ecosystem with the
influence of man, this is usually controlled ( ex.
fishpond, zoo)
 The Ten Global Threats to
Ecosystem Viability
1) Loss of crop & grazing land
2) Depletion of world's tropical forests
3) Extinction of species
4) Rapid population growth
5) Shortage of fresh water resources
6) Over fishing, habitat destruction, & pollution in the
marine environment.
7) Threats to human health
8) Climate change
9) Acid rain
10) Pressures on energy resources
Thank
END SHOW
you!!!