Ecosystem

Topic :
Subject: Ecology

Dr Archana Chaudhary
Faculty of Science
SGT University
 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.
Types of Ecosystem
Natural
1.Terrestrial ecosystems (grasslands, forests, desert
ecosystems)
2.Aquatic ecosystem
a.Lentic (Stagnant water) like lake, ponds etc.
b.Lotic (Flowing water) like river, ocean, sea, etc.
Artificial
1.A crop land, garden, aquarium, park, kitchen garden
 Importance of ecosystem
• Living organism cannot live in isolation.
• Depend on others in the biological community.
• A complete balance in nature exists amongst living organisms.
 Ecosystems
Fundamental Characteristics
• Structure:
• Living
• Nonliving
• Change:
• Dynamic
• Succession
• Process:
• Energy flow
• Cycling of matter
 Structural Components
• Biotic
• Abiotic

Balance
• Ecosystems will fail if they do not remain in balance.
• No community can carry more organisms than its food, water
and shelter can accommodate.
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.
All of these vary over space/time etc.
Trophic level: All the organisms that are the same
number of food-chain steps from the primary source of
energy

Modified from: General Ecology, by David T. Krome

Biotic components
Autotrophs
Photo –Autotrophs
Chemo-Autotrophs
Heterotrophs
Herbivores
Carnivores
Secondary
Tertiary
Omnivores
Saprotrophs
Trophic levels
• Primary producers: autotrophs (plants, algae, many bacteria,
phytoplankton),
• Primary consumers: heterotrophs that feed on autotrophs
(herbivores, zooplankton);
• Secondary consumers heterotrophs that feed on primary
consumers;
• Tertiary consumers (quatenary consumers);
• Detritivores (organisms that feed on decaying organic matter,
bacteria, fungi, and soil fauna)
• Omnivores (feed on everything), frugivore, fungivore…….
The diagram above shows how both energy and
inorganic nutrients flow through the ecosystem.
 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.
 Ecosystem Structure:
Trophic relations
• Trophic relationships determine an ecosystem’s
routes of energy flow and chemical cycling
• Trophic structure refers to the feeding relations
among organisms in an ecosystem
• Trophic level refers to how organisms fit in based
on their main source of nutrition
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.
 Food chain
Hypothetical term coined in 1927 by Charles Elton.
Transfer of matter and energy.
A more realistic depiction of who eats whom is
called a food web

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.
ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
Graphical representations of the number of
individuals in different nutritional levels.
Three types of ecological pyramids as follows:
1. Pyramid of number
2. Pyramid of biomass
3. Pyramid of energy
 Trophic Levels : Energy Pyramid
The least amount of energy is found at top of the pyramid.

The greatest amount of energy is found at the base of the

pyramid.
10% LAW
Pyramids
 Ecological Succession
An orderly process of changes in the community structure
and function with time mediated through modifications in the
physical environment and ultimately culminating in a
stabilized ecosystems known as climax community.
They may be :
• Hydrarch
• Mesarch
• Xerarch – lithosphere(Rocks), Psammosere(sand),
Halosere(Saline soil)
 Mechanism of Succession
• Nudation.
• Migration
/Dispersal(Pioneers) .
• Ecesis/Establishment.
• Aggregation.
• Invasion.
• Competition /Coaction.
• Reaction(Seral) .
• Stabilization(Climax).
Primary Succession
 Secondary Succession
This is a form of succession which occurs when the
environmental conditions in an area gradually change.
As a result of the change, some organisms no longer find
the conditions favourable.
The result is a gradual change in the species present in an
area.
An example of this is the changes in the environment
which occurred from the time that sea levels rose and cut
Rottnest Island off from the mainland.
Secondary Succession
Comparison
 The Forest Ecosystems

They are the ecosystems in which an abundance of flora, or plants, is seen so they have a big
number of organisms which live in relatively small space. Therefore, in forest ecosystems the
density of living organisms is quite high. A small change in this ecosystem could affect the whole
balance, effectively bringing down the whole ecosystem. They are further divided into:

• Tropical evergreen forest: These are tropical forests that receive a mean rainfall of 80 for
every 400 inches annually. The forests are characterised by dense vegetation which
comprises tall trees at different heights. Each level is shelter to different types of animals.

• Tropical deciduous forest: There, shrubs and dense bushes rule along with a broad
selection of trees. The type of forest is found in quite a few parts of the world while a large
variety of fauna and flora are found there.

DEPT OF APPLIED SCIENCE AND HUMANITIES 27

• Temperate evergreen forest: Those have quite a few numbers of trees as mosses and
ferns make up for them. Trees have developed spiked leaves in order to minimize
transpiration.

• Temperate deciduous forest: The forest is located in the moist temperate places that
have sufficient rainfall. Summers and winters are clearly defined and the trees shed the
leaves during the winter months.

• Taiga: Situated just before the arctic regions, the taiga is defined by evergreen conifers.
As the temperature is below zero for almost half a year, the remainder of the months, it
buzzes with migratory birds and insects.

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Forest ecosystem
 The Desert Ecosystem

• Desert ecosystems are located in regions that receive an annual rainfall less than 25.
They occupy about 17 percent of all the land on our planet.

• Due to the extremely high temperature, low water availability and intense sunlight, fauna
and flora are scarce and poorly developed.

• The vegetation is mainly shrubs, bushes, few grasses and rare trees. The stems and
leaves of the plants are modified in order to conserve water as much as possible.

• The best known desert ones are the succulents such as the spiny leaved cacti. The
animal organisms include insects, birds, camels, reptiles all of which are adapted to the
desert (xeric) conditions.

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Desert ecosystem
 The Grassland Ecosystem

Grasslands are located in both the tropical and temperate regions of the world though the
ecosystems vary slightly. The area mainly comprises grasses with a little number of trees
and shrubs. The main vegetation includes grasses, plants and legumes that belong to the
composite family. A lot of grazing animals, insectivores and herbivores inhabit the
grasslands. The two main kinds of grasslands ecosystems are:

• Savanna: The tropical grasslands are dry seasonally and have few individual trees. They
support a large number of predators and grazers.

• Prairies: It is temperate grassland, completely devoid of large shrubs and trees. Prairies
could be categorized as mixed grass, tall grass and short grass prairies.
Grassland
ecosystem
 Marine Ecosystem

Marine ecosystems are the biggest ecosystems, Water in Marine ecosystems features in high
amounts minerals and salts dissolved in them. The different divisions of the marine ecosystem
are:
• Oceanic: A relatively shallow part of oceans which lies on the continental shelf.
• Profundal: deep or Bottom water.
• Benthic Bottom substrates.
• Inter-tidal: The place between low and high tides.
• Estuaries
• Coral reefs
• Salt marshes
• Hydrothermal vents where chemosynthetic bacteria make up the food base.
Many kinds of organisms live in marine ecosystems: the brown algae, corals, cephalopods,
echinoderms, dinoflagellates and sharks.
Marine ecosystem
 Freshwater Ecosystem

Contrary to the Marine ecosystems, the freshwater ecosystem covers only 0.8% of Earth's
surface and contains 0.009% of the total water. Three basic kinds of freshwater ecosystems
exist:

• Lentic: Slow-moving or till water like pools, lakes or ponds.

• Lotic: Fast-moving water such as streams and rivers.
• Wetlands: Places in which the soil is inundated or saturated for some lenghty period of time.

The ecosystems are habitats to reptiles, amphibians and around 41% of the world’s fish
species. The faster moving turbulent waters typically contain greater concentrations of dissolved
oxygen, supporting greater biodiversity than slow moving waters in pools.
Freshwater ecosystem
Matter Dynamics
• Examination of matter transfer in an ecosystem shows that
matter is recycled .
• Matter moves from autotrophs, through the various
heterotrophic levels.
• Ultimately, all matter passes through the decomposer level
where it is broken down to its simplest form.
• This results in the release of large amounts of heat energy and
fundamental chemical substances which can then be re-utilised
by autotrophs.
Matter Cycles
• There are a number of significant matter cycles within
ecosystems. The models of these illustrate how specific
substances are cycled through an ecosystem.
• These substances are:
• Carbon
• Nitrogen
• Phosphorous
• Water
Carbon Cycle
Carbon Cycle

Sink Amount in Billions of Metric Tons

Atmosphere 578 (as of 1700) - 766 (as of 1999)

Soil Organic Matter 1500 to 1600

Ocean 38,000 to 40,000

Marine Sediments and Sedimentary Rocks 66,000,000 to 100,000,000

Terrestrial Plants 540 to 610

Fossil Fuel Deposits 4000

Nitrogen Cycle
Phosphorous Cycle
Hydrological Cycle – Water
Changes in an ecosystem
• Changes often occur in an ecosystem, which upset the natural
balance and flow of matter and energy.
• Events which might cause such imbalance include:
• Human destruction of ecosystems.
• Fire
• Widespread disease which eliminates one or more species
• Flood
Natural Ecosystems
• We have already reviewed the characteristics of a natural
ecosystem. They include:
• A natural balance of biomass and energy flow.
• Little or no accumulation of matter at any one point in the
ecosystem.
• Sustainability.
• Little or no import of energy or biomass.
Modified Ecosystems
• These are ecosystems which are either natural and have
been changed to suit mans needs or ecosystems which are
unnatural but are established by man.
• An example of such ecosystems include farms and towns in
which there is a clear flow of energy and biomass.
However, often considerable biomass and energy is either
lost or gained.
Managed Natural Ecosystems
• Some ecosystems provide valuable resources for human use.
• These ecosystems need to be managed so that the removable of the
sought resource is sustainable.
• This is often contentious and difficult to establish because the
measurement of natural ecosystems is difficult.;
• Often, it is the degradation of an ecosystem which first signals that
too many resources are being withdrawn from an ecosystem.