ECOSYSTEM

 The term ecology has been derived from two Greek words: (oikos=house
and logos =study).

 The household consists of non-living (abiotic) matters such as, soil and
water and living (biotic) organisms such as micro-organisms, plants and
animals including man.

 ECOLOGY: it deals with organisms, populations, communities,

ecosystems and the biosphere.

 ORGANISMS: it includes micro-organisms, plants and animals.

 POPULATION: it is defined as a group of individuals of any one kind of

organism.

 A COMMUNITY: includes all the populations of a given area.

  ECOSYSTEM: the community and the abiotic environment interact
and function together as a system called ecological system or
ecosystem.

 BIOSPHERE: the part of the earth where different ecosystems

operate is called the biosphere.

Concept of ecosystem

 A system means a group of things or parts working together.

 The living organism of an area habitat and their non-living environment
function together as one unit called the ecological system or ecosystem.
 A.G. Tansley (1953), for the first time, proposed the “ecosystem”.
Structure and function of an ecosystem

The different natural ecosystems are ponds, lakes, oceans, grasslands, forests,
deserts, tundra etc. An ecosystem, be it a pond, forest, deserts, tundra has the
following four components.
1. Abiotic components
2. Biotic components which includes;
 Producers
 Consumers
 Decomposers

1. ABIOTIC COMPONENTS:
 The non-living environment such as air, water, soil, basic elements and compounds
form the abiotic components of an ecosystem.
 The climatic conditions and physical factors like temperature, humidity etc.
 Inorganic substances such as water, carbon, nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus
etc. Which are involved in the cycling of materials in ecosystem.
 Organic substances such as protein, carbohydrates, lipids etc. which form
the living body and link the abiotic and biotic components.

2.BIOTIC COMPONENTS:
 PRODUCERS:
 Producers are green plants such as trees, crops, grasses, small Phyto planks
etc.

 They possess green pigments called chlorophyll. They can convert light
energy from sun light to chemical energy in the presence of carbon dioxide
and water. Hence, they are known as autotrophs.

 All other biotic components of the ecosystem depend directly or indirectly

on the producers for their food and energy recoupment.
 CONSUMERS:
 They are also known as heterotrophs. (hetero=other; trophic=nourishing).

 They are not capable of producers for their own food. They depend directly
or indirectly on producers for their food.

 Primary consumers:
 Consumers who directly depend on producers for food for called primary
consumers.
 Similarly, grasshoppers and rabbits are primary consumers in a grassland
ecosystem. Deers and elephants are primary consumers in forest
ecosystem.
 They are all herbivores.

 Secondary consumers:
 Consumers who depend on primary consumers for their food are called
secondary consumers.
 They are also called primary carnivore.

 Tertiary consumers:
 Consumers who depend on secondary consumer for their food are called
tertiary consumers.
 They are also called second carnivore tiger, snake.

 Decomposers:
 Decomposers are also heterotrophs. But they depend upon dead organic
matter for their food.
 These include micro-organisms like bacteria and fungi.
 They break down complex organic matter like cellulose, chitin etc.
 some protozoans and earthworms use dead organic matter as their food.
FUNCTIONAL COMPONENTS OF AN ECOSYSTEM
 Energy flow
 Food chain relationships.

1.ENERGY FLOW IN ECOSYSTEM

 Energy is the capacity to do work. For all biological activity, organism

requires energy. The energy ultimately comes from the sun.

 Solar energy is transformed to chemical energy by the process of

photosynthesis in the green plants.
 Therefore, the energy flows from sun to plants and then to other
heterotrophic organisms such as herbivores, carnivores order-1 and
carnivore order-2.
  The flow of energy from autotrophs to heterotrophs is unidirectional.
Therefore, energy flow in ecosystem can be defined as “unidirectional flow
of energy from the sun to plants and then to all heterotrophic organisms in
a non-cyclic manner.”

 Energy flow in ecosystem obeys two laws of thermodynamics: -

 1st law: energy is neither created nor destroyed, but is transformed to one
state to another.
 2nd law: energy cannot be transferred form to another. Some amount of
energy is lost during transfer from one form to the other.

Example:
Electric energy is converted to light energy to illuminate the electric bulb.
Total amount of electric energy spent for illumination of an electric bulb is not
converted into light energy totally.

2.Food chain relationship

 In an ecosystem the green plants are producers. They convert solar energy
to chemical energy.
 From the herbivores the energy is transferred first to primary carnivore and
then to secondary carnivore.
  The transfer of of food energy from plant sources through a series of
organisms in an ecosystem is known as ecosystem.

 Grazing food chain

 In this food chain the primary consumers are herbivores.
 In grasslands grasshoppers are the primary consumers.
 In forest the deer are primary consumers.
 Charles Elton a British ecologist after surveying many ecosystems and
numerous food chains concluded that the no’s of links in a food chain very
rarely exceeds 5.

Grassland Ecosystem
GRASS----GRASSHOPPER-----FROG---SNAKE---EAGLE

Forest ecosystem:
 PLANTS--DEER--TIGER

Aquatic eco system

Phytoplankton---Zoo plankton---Herbivore--Carnivore fish ---Bird

 DETRITUS OR DECOMPOSER FOOD CHAIN:

 The detritus food chain occurs in every ecosystem.
 Microorganisms like bacteria, fungi etc. feed on an decompose or dead
organic matters of producers and consumers.
  they enrich the nutrient pool in the soil which are used by producers.

DEAD PLANTS AND ANIMAL

↓
BACTERIA AND FUNGI(DECOMPOSER)
↓
PLANTS (ABSORBING DECOMPOSED ORGANIC MATTER)

 Parasitic food chain:

 In this food chain it may operate in many ecosystems.
 food energy passing through parasitic food chain is not very significant.
 Parasitic food chain involves host parasite links.

Significance of food chain:

 Food chain studies help to understand feeding relationships and
interactions between organism in any ecosystem.
 It gives idea about energ7y flow and circulation of matter in an
ecosystem.
  It helps to study movements of toxic substances in an ecosystem.

3.FOOD WEB:
 In the nature the food chain relationship is very complex.
 One organism may be the source of food for many other organisms.
 For ex: - grass may be grazed by grasshopper, rabbit as well as by deer.
 A food web consists of many food chains.
 It represents feeding relationship within a community.
 It consists of a no of food chains meshed together.
 Similarly, in nature a given type of animal doesn’t always feed on only
one type of organisms.
 For ex: - man could be a herbivore, carnivore order1 (c1) or may be
carnivore order2(c2).
 Therefore, each organisms’ feeds on two or more kinds and are in turn
eaten up by several other kinds of organisms.
 When this is represented through a diagram the relationship appears as
branching lines, rather than a single straight line. this is called food web.
 In nature a simple food chain is very rare and food web is very common.

Trophic level:
In ecosystem the living organisms are placed in different levels called trophic
level.
There are 4 types of trophic level:
 First trophic level: the green plants occupy the first trophic level. This is also
called producer level.

 Second trophic level: herbivore occupy the second trophic level. this is also
called primary consumer level or herbivore level.

 Third trophic level: carnivore-1 occupy the third trophic level this is also
called secondary consumer level.

 Fourth trophic level: carnivore-2 occupy the fourth trophic level. This is
called tertiary consumer level.

FIRST TROPHIC LEVEL (GREEN PLANTS)

↓
SECOND TROPHIC LEVEL (HERBIVORES)
↓
THIRD TROPHIC LEVEL (CARNIVORIES C1)
↓
FOUR TROPHIC LEVEL (CARNIVORIES C2)

4.ECOLOGICAL PYRAMID: -
 The concept of ecological pyramid was developed by Charles Elton
 He noted that producers at the base of the food chain are more in number.
 At the end of the food chain the number of tertiary consumers is relatively
fewer.
 There is a progressive decrease in the no of organisms from producer level
to tertiary level.
 An ecological pyramid is a graphical representation of the relationship
between organisms at various trophic levels in a food chain.
 Each of the bars that make up the pyramid represents a different trophic
level, and their order, which is based on who eats whom.
 As the name suggests, ecological pyramids are the biomass, energy and the
number.
 The bottom of an ecological pyramid is the broadcast and is occupied by
the producers which forms the 1st trophic level.
Producers are at the lowest level.
 Just as in food chain, the producers are consumed by the primary
consumers in an ecological pyramid; the next level is occupied by the
primary consumers.
 The next level of the pyramid is occupied by the secondary consumers and
the last, by the tertiary consumers.
 Depending on the factors that we use to represent an ecological pyramid,
they are of 3 types.
 They are: -
a) Pyramid of numbers.
b) Pyramid of energy.
c) Pyramid of biomass.

 PYRAMID OF NUMBERS:-
 Here the factor that is taken into account is the number is organism in
each trophic level
 When number of producers, primary consumer (herbivores), secondary
consumers (c1) and tertiary consumers (c2) of an ecosystem is plotted,
they form a pyramid structure.
This is called pyramid.
 As we go up the level of the pyramid, the no of organisms decreases.
 The producers from the largest number and hence are at the bottom of
the pyramid
 In general, all ecological pyramids are up right except in certain cases
 For example: -in a detritus food chain, the pyramid of number is not up
right because many organisms feed on dead plants and animal

 PYRAMID OF BIOMASS: -
 Bio mass is nothing but weight of the organisms
 If we plot the bio mass (weight) of producer, primary consumer secondary
consumer and tertiary consumer one above the other we obtain a pyramid
of biomass because total weight of producers is such more than the weight
of consumers.
 Pyramid of biomass in an ocean is inverted when the biomass of producers
(plankton) is less than biomass of consumers (whale).

 PYRAMID OF ENERGY: -
 This is an upright pyramid that represents the flow of energy from the
producers to the final of energy from the producers to the final consumers.
 When we arrange the energy available to each trophic level per unit area,
one above the other, we get an exert pyramid.
Because the energy available at producers’ level is much higher than
herbivore level, c1 and c2 level.
 According to the law of thermodynamics, there will be loss of energy
during transfer from one trophic level to other.
 Thus, pyramid of energy is always upright.
ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION: -
 Ecological succession is the process of change in the species structure of an
ecological community over time.
 The time can be decade or even millions of years after a mass extinction.
 Ecological succession is of 2types: -
They are: -
i. Primary succession.
ii. Secondary succession.

 PRIMARY SUCCESSION: -
 It refers to auto trophic succession.
 It is a series of community changes which occurs on a entirely new habitat
which has never been colonized before.
 It includes development of a new plant community in a barren area not
occupied previously by any community.
 The stages of development of a new community by primary succession is
described below: -

First stage: -
 This stage includes arrival of seeds from the neighboring region by a
process called migration.

Second stage: -
 It includes germination of seeds and survival of the seedlings
 Full scale establishment of successive seedlings is called colonization.

Third stage: -
 New migrants also develop in the area in time and help to increase the
population. This process is called aggregation.
 The first to colonies and aggregate are called pioneers. Due to the above
process a community develops in a new barren area.
  SECONDARY SUCCESSION:-
 It is also called as heterotrophic succession.
 It is a series of changes in a community which takes place on a previously
colonized, but disturbed or damaged habitat.
 Secondary succession develops on sites previously occupied by well-
developed communities.
 The sites may be rich in nutrients and survival conditions for new
population are favorable.
 Ex: - succession that occurs in a cut over forest or a fallen log or aquatic
ecosystem loaded with sewage.

EXAMPLE OF ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION: -

 Hydrosere or hydratchb
 In hydrosere or hydratch a pond and its community is gradually converted
into a land community process called migration.

CLASSIFICATION OF ECO SYSTEM: -

Various types of ecosystem exists in the world. Different ecosystems develop due
to interaction between flora and fauna of the region with the climatic condition
and the parent rock (habitat).
Eco systems are broadly classified as: -
I. Forest eco system
II. Grassland eco system
III. Desert eco system
IV. Savanna eco system
V. Tundra eco system
 FOREST ECO SYSTEM: -

 A forest is a unit consisting of biotic components (plants, animals), functioning

together with the Abiotic components of the environment forest cover about
40% of the total landmass of the earth.

 Forest are categorized into 4 types: -

I. Trophical forest
II. Sub-Trophical forest
III. Temperate forest
IV. Alpine forest

i.TROPHICAL FOREST: -
 In this forest annual rainfall in about 200 to 225cm
 This forest consists of trees which grow up to 25 to 40m tall and all plants
are evergreen.
 This forest has high productivity.
 The rate of decomposer is also very high as the forest soil is very rich in
microorganisms.
  A square kilometer of this forest may contain 200 to 300 different
species of trees.
 The climatic condition of this forest: plenty of moisture heat and no
winter.
ii.SUB- TROPHICAL FOREST: -
 The rainfall in this forest is about 75 to 100 cm per year .
 The trees are deciduous (shed their leaves).
 The primary productivity is very high.
 Rate of decomposers of organic matter is very high in this soil.
 They climatic condition of this forest this is they are warm during
summers and cold during winters.

iii.TEMPERATE FOREST: -
 Temperate forest usually has deciduous trees, evergreen shrubs,
rhizomes, bulb etc.
 It has high productivity.
 The rate of decomposers is very slow.
 A climatic condition of this forest is full.
 Important consumer of this forest are dear, fox, bear etc .

iv.ALPINE FOREST:-
 The temperature is very low.
 The maximum temperature is 10⁰ during warmer months .
 Primary productivity and decomposers rate is low.
 Common plants are red pine , white pine, etc
 Important consumers are rodents , black bears etc.
 Alpine forests are found in mountain.
COMPONENTS OF FOREST ECOSYSTEM:-
Forest ecosystem consists of two components they are:-
i) Abiotic components
ii) Biotic components

i. ABIOTIC COMPONENTS:-
 Soil contains high quantity of macronutrients and micronutrients and
micronutrients due to high rate of decomposition of organic matter.
 Macronutrients include carbon , nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen, potassium,
calcium, magnesium , sulphur , and phosphorous.
 Micronutrients include iron , manganese , copper, zinc, boron,
molybdenum, vanadium, cobalt, chlorine, and sodium.

ii. BIOTIC COMPONENTS:-

Biotic components include:-
a. Primary producer
b. Primary consumer
c. Secondary consumers
d. Tertiary consumers
e. Decomposers

a. PRIMARY PRODUCER:-
 Primary consumers are used bearing plants of various sizes.
 The trees provide shelter for many animals.
 They help in soil formation and evaporation of water.
 b. PRIMARY CONSUMERS:-
 Primary consumers are herbivores.
 They are mostly arthropods and herbivorous mammals.

c. SECONDARY CONSUMERS:-
 Secondary consumers include carnivore’s order -1(c1) who feed on
herbivores.
 These are carnivore’s reptiles & mammals.

d. TERTIARY CONSUMERS:-
 These consumers include large flesh eating carnivores order -2 (c2).
 who feed on secondary consumers or carnivore order-1( c1).
 eg :- birds ,snakes, and mammals.

e.DECOMPOSERS:-
 The decomposers are bacteria, fungi, and same soil invertebrates.
 Due to the presence of large number of decomposers the
decomposition activity is very high.
 Decomposers don not allow accumulation of organic wastes on the
forest floor.

FUNCTION OF FOREST ECO SYSTEM:-

 The producers in the forest ecosystem are mostly trees.
 The trees manufacture carbohydrate type of food by a process of
named photosynthesis.
 The herbivores and carnivores (c1&c2) grow, flourish and reproduce
by getting energy from autographs either directly or indirectly.
 Bacteria and fungi decompose the organic matter (dead body of
plants and animal) present in the soil and increase the nutrients of
the soil.
  There is continuous food chain, food web and energy flow in this eco
system
 There for, the forest eco system is in the state of dynamic
equilibrium.

AQUATIC ECO SYSTEM:-

*A lake showing different ecological zone

 An aquatic eco system is an eco system in a body of water
 This eco system occupies about 70% of the total area of the earth
 About 97.2% of the total aquatic ecosystem is covered by ocean and rest
2.8% is covered by in inland fresh water.
 Aquatic eco system is classified into following 3 categories:-
I. Inland water or Fresh water ecosystem
II. Ocean water or salt water eco system
III. Estuarine water eco system.

i.FRESH WATER ECO SYSTEM:-

 It is also known as inland water eco system
 This eco system covers 0.78% of the earth surface
  This eco system contains 41% of the worlds known fish species
Example: ponds, lakes, springs, rivers etc.

ii. OCEAN WATER OR SALT WATER ECO SYSTEM

 It is the largest of all eco system
 They cover approximately 71% of the earth surface
 This eco system can be distinguished from fresh water eco system by
the presence of dissolved compounds, specially salt in the water
 It is also known as ocean water or salt water eco system
 This includes ocean, seas, bays etc.

iii.ESTUARINE WATER ECO SYSTEM:-

 In this eco system, water is not as salty as ocean water but more than
fresh water.
 It includes salt water lakes, mouth of river etc.

 Producti vity of an eco system depends upon the penetrati on of

sun light

 Hence, depending upon the depth and penetrati on of sun light,

water body is divided into 3 zones. They are :

a. Littoral zone
b. Limnetic zone
c. Profundal zone

a. LITTORAL ZONE:-
 zone receive plenty of light in pools, ponds, and lakes
 Primary producers are aquatic This zone extends up to 6 mts of depth
 This rooted plants, mesophytes, water lilies etc.
  The heterotrophs found in this zone are varieties of insects and there
larvae, frogs, snakes, snails etc.

b.LIMENTIC ZONE:
 This zone extends upto 10 mts of depth
 Penetration of sunlight occurs although the depth
 Primary producers are sub merged hydrophytes, phytoplankton etc.

c.PROFUNDAL ZONE:-
 This zone is beyond 10 mts of depth.
 This zone is totally deprived of light
 Therefore, primary producers are absent in this zone .
 This zone doesn’t exist in pond eco system.

COMPONENTS OF POND ECOSYSTEM:-

Basic components of pond ecosystem are:-
i) Abiotic components
ii) Biotic components

 ABIOTIC COMPONENTS: -
 Abiotic environment factors in a pond eco system include the
temperature, flow and salinity.
 The pollutants, nutrients and ph of soil are also critical Abiotic factors in
a pond ecosystem.
 Particular matters like sand, mud, etc remain as suspension in water
they determine turbidity of water. Turbidity determines the
 penetration of sunlight, thus affects photosynthesis and primary
production.
 Dissolved ions such as chlorine, carbonate , bicarbonate sulphate ,
sulphite etc of some metals and non metals determines the ph salinity
and hardness of water.
 Dissolved gases such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, ammonia , hydrogen ,
sulphide etc determine ph ( acidity and alkalinity) of water.
 Temperature is another factor for regulating the solution of gas and salt
in water.

 BIOTIC COMPONENTS:-
 The bioti c components are the living organisms in the pond .

 They are producers, consumers and decomposers .

a. PRODUCERS:-
 The producers in a pond are phytoplankton. Like algae , Volvos etc .
 Free floating plants like pistia , azolla and submerged plants are
hydrilla , chara etc manufacture carbohydrate type of food .

b. PRIMARY PRODUCERS :-
 The primary consumers in a pond eco system are herbivores
zooplanktons like daphnia, Cyprus, rotifers etc.

c. SECONDARY CONSUMERS :-
 Seconsecodary consumers in a pond ecosystem are carnivores of
order 1 (c1) like
 channa and clarias. They feed on herbivores small fishes.

d. TERTIARY CONSUMERS:-
  Tertiary consumers in a pond ecosystem are large prying fishes like
wallago, Murrells and some water snakes ; who feed on channa and
clarias etc .
 The tertiary consumers are carnivore order- 2 ( c2)

e. DECOMPOSERS:-
 The primary decomposers in a pond eco system are bacteria , fungi , and
the secondary decomposers are protozoan’s .they are present in the mud.
 They convert the dead organic matter of producers and consumers into
essential nutrients which are used by the rooted aquatic plants.

FUNCTIONS OF PONDS ECOSYSTEM:-

 The primary producers are phytoplankton’s, floating and rooted
hydrophytes.
 These autotrophs manufacture carbohydrate type of food in the pond
ecosystem.
 The primary consumers are zooplanktons and small herbivores fishes.
 The c1 and dc2 carnivores are large fishes, aquatic snakes etc.
 The consumers grow, flourish and reproduce by getting energy from the
producers.
 The decomposers are bacteria, fungi e5tc present in the mud.
 They decompose the dead bodies of producers and consumers.
 They increase the nutrient pool of the ecosystem.
 There is continuous food chain, food web, energy, flow and nutrient cycle
in the pond ecosystem.
 Therefore, the ecosystem is in a state of dynamic equilibrium.