ECO-SYSTEMS

Furqan Saeed
What is an ecosystem?
An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all
plants, animals and micro-organisms in an
area functioning together with all of the non-
living physical factors of the environment. An
ecosystem is a completely independent unit
of interdependent organisms which share the
same habitat. Ecosystems usually form a
number of food webs which show the
interdependence of the organisms within the
ecosystem
What is an ecosystem?

The study of ecosystems mainly consists

of the study of certain processes that link of
living, or biotic, components to the non non-
living, or abiotic, components.
Ecology
It is defined as the

interactions of organisms with one another

and with the environment in which they occur.
Processes of Ecosystem
 Energy Flows

 Biogeochemical cycling

 Interrelation
A-biotic & Biotic Components
Energy Flows
Energy Flows in
Ecosystem
Energy Flow
through
Food Chains
Ecological Pyramid
Solar Energy received by
Vegetation
Biogeochemical Cycles
 biogeochemical cycle is a circuit or pathway
by which a Chemical element or molecule
moves through both biotic ("bio-") and a-biotic
("geo-") compartments of an ecosystem
Biogeochemical Cycles
Biogeochemical Cycles

 Nitrogen Cycle
 Oxygen Cycle
 Carbon Cycle
 Phosphorus Cycle
 Sulphur Cycle
 Water Cycle
 Hydrogen Cycle
Nitrogen Cycle
 The nitrogen cycle is the biogeochemical cycle
that describes the transformations of nitrogen
and nitrogen-containing compounds in nature. It
is a gaseous cycle.

 Earth's atmosphere = 78% nitrogen,

 Essential for many biological processes
 Crucial for any life on Earth
 Present in all amino acids and proteins
 Present in DNA and RNA.
 In plants nitrogen is used in chlorophyll
molecules which are essential for photosynthesis
Nitrogen Cycle
Oxygen Cycle
 The oxygen cycle is the biogeochemical cycle
that describes the movement of oxygen within and
between its three main reservoirs:
1. Atmosphere,
2. Biosphere
3. Lithosphere.

The main driving factor of the oxygen cycle is

photosynthesis, which is responsible for the
modern Earth's atmosphere and life as we know it.
Oxygen Cycle
Oxygen Cycle
Carbon Cycle
 The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by
which carbon is exchanged between the
biosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and
atmosphere of the Earth.

 Carbon in Oceans = 36,000 gigatonnes

 Present in the form of bicarbonate ion.
 Inorganic carbon, that is carbon compounds with
no carbon-carbon or carbon-hydrogen bonds, is
important in its reactions within water. This
carbon exchange becomes important in
controlling pH in the ocean and can also vary as
a source or sink for carbon.
Carbon Cycle
Carbon Cycle
 Phosphorus Cycle
 Phosphorus normally occurs in nature as part of a phosphate
ion, consisting of a phosphorus atom and some number of
oxygen atoms, the most abundant form (called
orthophosphate) having four oxygens: PO4-. Most
phosphates are found as salts in ocean sediments or in rocks
 Phosphates move quickly through plants and animals;
however, the processes that move them through the soil or
ocean are very slow, making the phosphorus cycle overall
one of the slowest biogeochemical cycles.
 However, recent findings suggest that phosphorus is cycled
through the ocean on the timescale of 10,000yr, suggesting
that the phosphorus cycle may play a role in global warming.
Phosphorus Cycle
Sulphur Cycle
 Sulfur is one of the constituents of many proteins,
vitamins and hormones

The essential steps of the sulfur cycle are:

 Mineralization of organic sulfur to the inorganic form,

hydrogen sulfide: (H2S).
 Oxidation of sulfide and elemental sulfur (S) and
related compounds to sulfate (SO42–).
 Reduction of sulfate to sulfide.
 Microbial immobilization of the sulfur compounds and
subsequent incorporation into the organic form of
sulfur
Sulphur Cycle
Sulphur Cycle
Water Cycle
 Totalannual evapotranspiration amounts to
approximately 505,000 km³ of water, 434,000
km³ of which evaporates from the oceans
Water Cycle
 Volume of water stored in
the water cycle's reservoirs

Reservoir Volume of water Percent

(106 km³ ) of total

Oceans 1370 97.25

Ice caps & glaciers 29 2.05
Groundwater 9.5 0.68
Lakes 0.125 0.01
Soil moisture 0.065 0.005
Atmosphere 0.013 0.001
Streams & rivers 0.0017 0.0001
Biosphere 0.0006 0.00004
Hydrogen Cycle
 Anaerobic fermentation of organic substances to carbon dioxide
and methane is a collaborative effort involving many different
biochemical reactions, processes and species of microorganisms.
One of these many processes that occur is termed "interspecies
hydrogen transfer". This process has been described as integral to
the symbiosis between certain methane-producing bacteria
(methanogens) and nonmethanogenic anaerobes. In this
symbiosis, the nonmethanogenic anaerobes degrade the organic
substance and produce -among other things- molecular hydrogen
(H2). This hydrogen is then taken up by methanogens and
converted to methane via methanogenesis. One important
characteristic of interspecies hydrogen transfer is that the H2
concentration in the microbial environment is very low. Maintaining
a low hydrogen concentration is important because the anaerobic
fermentative process become increasingly thermodynamically
unfavorable as the partial pressure of hydrogen increases.