Abiotic and Biotic components of

ecosystem
 Concept of ecosystem

• Ecology means the study of organism in their

natural habitat
• proposed by zoologist H. Reiter in 1868
• Johannes Warming is founder of plant ecology
• Alexander von Humbolt-the father of ecology
• First put forward the concept of ecosystem by
A.G Tansley in 1935
• E.P Odum also defined the ecosystem in his way
• Tansley define ecosystem s a “ major ecological
unit which has both structure and funtions”
• Odum has defined ecosystem as the basic
functional unit of organism & their surrounding
interacting with each other and with their won
component
 Organization of ecosystem

• Organized by both structural and functional units

• Structure point of view, all the ecosystem consist
of the following basic components
1) Abiotic components
2) Biotic components
• The functional organization of ecosystem are
grazing, predation, parasitization, decomposition
etc
• The positive, negative or neutral interactions
occur among organisms at both inter and intra
specific levels
 1. Biotic components

• Living components of an ecosystem

• Includes all living organisms present in the
environmental system, they are interacting
with one another
• Biotic components are grouped into three;
i. Producers
ii. Consumers
iii. Decomposers
 i. Producers ( Autotrophic elements)
• They are chiefly green plants
• Use radiant energy of sun in photosynthetic
process where CO2 is assimilated and light
energy is converted into chemical energy
• Oxygen is evolved as byproduct in the
photosynthesis
• Such as Hydrilla, Spirogyra, phytoplaktons,
herbs, shrubs and trees
 ii. Consumers
• These living members which consume the
food synthesized by producers
• Under this category includes all kinds of
animals that are found in an ecosystem
• There are different classes or categories of
consumers such as,
a) Primary consumers- herbivore
b) Secondary consumers –primary carnivore/omnivores
c) Tertiary consumers –secondary carnivore
 iii. Decomposers and Transformers

• Fungi and bacteria are included in this group

• Attack the dead remains of producers, consumers
and degrade the complex organic substances into
simpler compounds
• Simple organic compound are attacked by
another kind of bacteria
• Transformers change the organic compound into
the inorganic forms that are suitable for reuse by
producers or green plants
• These are very impo. role in maintaing dynamic
nature of ecosystem
 2. Abiotic components
• Non-living factors and includes;
– Physical factors are light, temperature, moisture,
– Chemical factors includes salts or gases (O2 &
CO2), pH, water
– Edaphic factors includes soil
Types of ecosystem
Thank you 