Introduction to Ecosystem Ecology

Prof. Dr. Yingzhi Gao

Northeast Normal University

Phone:13664319768
Email:[email protected]
Textbook:

Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology

by F. Stuart Chapin III
Pamela A. Matson
Harold A. Mooney
 Course Goals

Understand basic principles

Interaction, scale, process, pools and fluxes, trophic,
Integrationregulation and management
Get you involved

Participate!!!
 Why should we care about
ecosystem ecology?

Ecosystem ecology provides a

mechanistic basis for understanding the
Earth System
Ecosystems provide goods and services
to society
Human activities are changing
ecosystems (and therefore the Earth
System)
Complex: human activity influence
What is Ecosystem Ecology?

Study of interactions among

organisms and their physical
environment as an integrated
system
 What is an ecosystem?

bounded ecological system

consisting of all the organisms in an
area and the physical environment
with which they interact
Biotic and abiotic processes
Pools and fluxes
 System definition nutrient cycling

Living
aboveground Standing dead
phytomass

Degistatio
System output:
n
Animals Litter
System input: Excr
Uptake for
shoot production
eta
- water outflow
internal - wind erosion
(Du
Retranslocation ng)

- wet and dry Decompos

- losses to air
Excreta (Urine) ition

deposition
nutrient cycling
Dead
Living
belowground
phytomass (denitrification)
- N2-fixation belowground Decomp
phytomass o-
sition Humus - fire (burning dung)
- fertilization
- haymaking
- water inflow
Washout Exudation
Mineralization - animal products
Uptake (meat, wool,...)
Mineral
nutrients in Mineralization
soil solution
Nitrogen fluxes and pools 2004 and 2005 (g/m)
TO TO
Living shoot
Living shoot Sheep uptake 1,0 0.4 Export
Sheep
TO T79
1.4 - 2.3 2.2 - 3.1 TO
0.1
TO
0.6
Standing dead
Standing dead and
and
N-uptake
N-uptake litter
litter
TO T79 Decomposition
1.4 - 2.3 2.2 - 3.1 TO T79
TO T79
0.23 - 0.26 2.8 - 2.9
0.05 0.6

Root N-uptake
Living roots
Living roots
TO T79 TO T79 Soil Humus N
4.5 8.3 5 7 (0-20 cm)
Plant
Dead roots
Dead roots available
N
TO T79
330 400
TO T79
16.7 25.4 Decomposition
TO T79
3-5 5-9
 Ecosystem Structure:
Trophic relations
Trophic relationships determine an
ecosystems 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,
including
 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.
 Other Definitions
An ecosystem is a bounded ecological
system that includes all the organisms and
abiotic pools with which they interact.
An ecosystems is the sum of all of the
biological and nonbiological parts that
interact to cause plants grow and decay, soil
or sediments to form, and the chemistry of
water to change.
 Ecosystem Ecology

The study of the movement of energy and

materials, including water, chemicals,
nutrients, and pollutants, into, out of, and
within ecosystems.
The study of the interactions among
organisms and their environment as an
integrated systems.
 Example 1

Small scale: e.g., soil core, appropriate for

studying microbial interactions with the soil
environment, microbial nutrient
transformations, trace gas fluxes,
 Example 2

Stand: an area of sufficient homogeneity

with regard to vegetation, soils, topography,
microclimate, and past disturbance history
to be treated as a single unit.
Appropriate for studying whole-ecosystem
gas exchange, net primary productivity,
plant-soil-microbial nutrient and carbon
fluxes
 Example 3

Natural boundaries: sometimes, ecosystems

are bounded by naturally-delineated borders
(lawn, crop field, lake).
Appropriate questions include whole-lake
trophic dynamics and energy fluxes (e.g.
Lindeman)
 Example 4

Watershed: a stream and all the terrestrial

surface that drains into it.

Watershed studies use stream as sample

device, recording surface exports of water,
nutrients, carbon, pollutants, etc., from the
watershed.
 Temporal Scale

Instantaneous
 Temporal Scale

Instantaneous
Seasonal
 Temporal Scale

Instantaneous
Seasonal
Succession
 Temporal Scale

Instantaneous
Seasonal
Succession
Species migration
 Temporal Scale

Instantaneous
Seasonal
Succession
Species migration
Evolutionary history
 Temporal Scale

Instantaneous
Seasonal
Succession
Species migration
Evolutionary history
Geologic history
 General approaches

Systems approach
Top-down approach
 General approaches

Systems approach
Top-down approach
Comparative approach
Bottom-up approach
Based on processes
 Historical roots

Community ecology
Elton
Clements
Geography
Warming, Schimper, Walter
Soils
Jenny
 Systems Approach

Lindeman: Trophic dynamics

Odum: Energy and nutrient flows
Margalef: Information transfer
ONeill: Hierarchy theory
Holling: Resistance and resilience
 Process Approach

Jenny: State factors

Billings, Mooney: Ecophysiology
 Tansley, British plant ecoslogist

The use and abuse of vegetational concepts

and terms. Ecology 16: 284-307
First to coin term, ecosystem
Emphasized interactions between biotic and
abiotic factors
Argued against exclusive focus on
organisms
 Hans Jenny, Soil scientist

Factors of soil formation, 5 state factors that

constrain soil and ecosystem development
Soil = function of Climate, organisms, parent
material, relief (topography) and time, or
s=f(clorpt)
Many patterns of soil and ecosystem properties
correlate with state factors (climate and vegetation
structure and function)
 Ramond Lindeman

Qualified pools and fluxes of energy in a lake

ecosystem emphasizing biotic and abiotic
components and exchange
Fluxes of energy, critical currency in ecosystem
ecology, basis for comparison among ecosystems
Synthesized with mathematical model
Coupling of energy flow with nutrient cycling
 J. D. Ovington, English forester

Central question, how much water and nutrients

are needed to produce a given amount of wood?
Constructed ecosystem budgets for nutrients,
water, and biomass
Also included inputs and outputs: exports of logs
involves exports of nutrients (thus inputs of
nutrients required to maintain productivity
One of the first to state the need for more basic
understanding of ecosystem function for managing
natural resources
 H. T. Odum and E. P. Odum

Used radioactive tracers to study movement

of energy and materials through a coral reef,
documenting patterns of whole system
metabolism
System analysis- ecosystem as a life-
support system concept
Earth System and Global Change

Making history in ecosystem ecology

Impact of human activities on Earth has led to the
need to understand how ecosystem processes
affect the atmosphere and oceans
Large spatial scale, requiring new tools in
ecosystem ecology (fluxes tower measurements of
gas exchange over large regions, remote sensing
from satellites,global networks of atmospheric
sampling, global models of ecosystem
metabolism).
 Frontiers in ecosystem ecology

Integrating systems analysis, process

understanding, and global analysis
How do changes in the environment alter the
controls over ecosystem processes? What are the
integrated consequences of these changes? How
do these changes in ecosystem properties
influence the Earth system?
Rapid human-induced changes occurring in
ecosystems have blurred any previous distinction
between basic research and management
application
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