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Core Case Study:

Tropical Rainforests Are Disappearing
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE • Found near the equator
• ~6% land surface
• ~50% world’s known terrestrial plant and
animal species
2-Ecosystems: What • ≥50% destroyed or disturbed by humans
Are They and How Do – Cutting trees
They Work? – Growing crops
– Grazing cattle
– Building settlements

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Core Case Study:

Tropical Rainforests Are Disappearing
• Consequences of disappearing tropical
rainforests
1. Decreased biodiversity as species become
extinct
2. Accelerated global warming: fewer trees
to remove carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere
3. Changes regional weather patterns: can
lead to increase in tropical grasslands

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What Keeps Us and Other

Organisms Alive?
• The four major components of the earth’s
life-support system are the atmosphere
(air), the hydrosphere (water), the
geosphere (rock, soil, sediment), and the
biosphere (living things).

• Life is sustained by the flow of energy

from the sun through the biosphere, the
cycling of nutrients within the biosphere,
and gravity.
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Earth Has Four Major Life- Atmosphere

• Troposphere: contains the
Hydrosphere
• liquid water (on the surface
Support Components •
majority of the air that we breathe
N(78%); O(21%), Greenhouse gases
and underground)

(1%)
• ice (polar ice, icebergs, and ice in
• Atmosphere- a thin spherical envelope of gases • Stratosphere: holds enough
frozen soil layers called permafrost)

surrounding the earth’s surface (Troposphere & Stratosphere) • water vapor

ozone (O3) gas to filter out most of
the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV)
• Hydrosphere- all of the water on or near the radiation.
earth’s surface. (liquid water, ice, and watervapor)
Geosphere Biosphere
• Geosphere- consists of the earth’s intensely hot • Lithosphere: (crust), soil and • where life is found
core, a thick mantle composed mostly of rock, and a thin rock
• The goal of ecology is to
outer crust. • non-renewable fossil fuels, minerals understand the interactions
and renewable nutrients
that occur within this thin layer
• Biosphere- consists of the parts of the • Mantle and Inner core: most of of air, water, soil, and
atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere where life is geosphere is located near the organisms.
earth’s interior
found.

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Vegetation
and animals
Atmosphere Three Factors Sustain Life on
Soil
Biosphere
Earth
Lithosphere
Rock
Crust • One-way flow of high-quality energy
Mantle from the sun
• Cycling of matter or nutrients through
Biosphere
parts of the biosphere
(living organisms)
• Gravity
Core Atmosphere
Mantle (air)

Crust
(soil and rock)
Geosphere
Hydrosphere
(crust, mantle, core)
(water)

Fig. 3-2, p. 41

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Solar Energy Reaching the

Solar

Earth radiation

• Electromagnetic waves Reflected by

– Visible light UV radiation atmosphere Radiated by
atmosphere

– UV radiation Most Lower Stratosphere

as heat

(ozone layer)
– Heat absorbed
by ozone Visible Troposphere
light Heat radiated
• Natural greenhouse effect Heat by the earth

• Energy in = energy out Absorbed

by the earth
Greenhouse
effect

• Human-enhanced global warming

Fig. 3-3, p. 41

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What Are the Major
Components of an Ecosystem?
• Some organisms produce the
nutrients they need, others get the
nutrients they need by consuming
other organisms, and some recycle
nutrients back to producers by
decomposing the wastes and
remains of organisms.
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Ecologists study interactions in nature
• Ecology focuses on how organisms interact with
each other and with their non-living environment.
They study interactions within and among these
following levels of organization:
– Population is a group of individuals of the same
species living in a particular place.
– Community is populations of different species living
in a particular place, and potentially interacting with
each other.
– Ecosystem is a community of different species
interacting with one another and with their nonliving
environment of matter and energy
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Ecology
• How organisms interact with biotic
and abiotic environment
• Focuses on specific levels of matter:
– Organisms
– Populations
– Communities
– Ecosystems
– Biosphere
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Biosphere Parts of the earth's air,water, and soil

where life is found Living and Nonliving
Ecosystem A community of different species
interacting with one another and with
their nonliving environment of matter
Components
and energy
Community Populations of different species
living in a particular place, and
• Abiotic
potentially interacting with each
other – Water
Population A group of individuals of the same
species living in a particular place – Air
Organism An individual living being – Nutrients
The fundamental structural and – Solar energy
Cell functional unit of life
– Rocks
Molecule Chemical combination of two or
more atoms of the same or different – Heat
elements
Atom Smallest unit of a chemical element
that exhibits its chemical properties Stepped Art
Fig. 3-4, p. 42

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Living and Nonliving Precipitation

Oxygen (O2)

Components Carbon dioxide (CO2)

• Biotic
– Plants Producer

– Animals Secondary
consumer
(fox)
– Microbes Primary
consumer

– Dead organisms (rabbit)

– Waste products of dead organisms Producers

Water Decomposers

Soluble mineral
nutrients
Fig. 3-5, p. 43

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Trophic Levels (Feeding level) Trophic Levels

• Producers – autotrophs • Decomposers
– Release nutrients from the dead bodies
– Photosynthesis
of plants and animals
• Consumers – heterotrophs
-Detritivores
– Primary - herbivores
:Feed on the waste or dead bodies of organisms
– Secondary - carnivores
-Saprophytes
– Third-level
: organism which gets its energy from dead
• Omnivores organic matter. This may be decaying pieces of
plants and animals. More generally used for
plants, fungi and microbes.
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Detritus feeders Decomposers

Production and Consumption of
Energy
• Photosynthesis
• Carbon dioxide + water + solar energy àglucose + oxygen
Carpenter
Termite and
Bark beetle ant galleries
engraving
carpenter
Dry rot
• Aerobic respiration
Long-horned ant work
beetle holes fungus • Glucose + oxygen à carbon dioxide + water + energy

Wood
reduced Mushroom
to powder

Time
progression Powder broken down by
decomposers into plant
nutrients in soil
Fig. 3-6, p. 44

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Energy Flow and Nutrient Solar

Abiotic chemicals energy
Recycling Heat
(carbon dioxide,
oxygen, nitrogen,
minerals)

Solar
Abiotic chemicals energy
(carbon dioxide, Heat Heat
Heat
oxygen, nitrogen,
• Ecosystems minerals)
sustained through:
– One-way energy flow from Heat Heat Decomposers Producers
the sun (bacteria, fungi) (plants)
– Nutrient recycling
Decomposers Producers
(bacteria, fungi) (plants)

Consumers
(herbivores,
Consumers Heat carnivores) Heat
(herbivores,
Heat carnivores) Heat Fig. 3-7, p. 45
Fig. 3-7, p. 45

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Science Focus: Invisible Science Focus: Invisible

Organisms Organisms
• Microorganism • Microbes can cause disease
s/Microbes – Malaria
– Bacteria – Athlete’s foot
– Protozoa • Microbes are also beneficial
– Fungi – Intestinal flora
– Phytoplankton – Purify water
– Phytoplankton remove carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere
– drugs that cure certain diseases
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What Happens to Energy in an

Ecosystem? Energy Flow in Ecosystems
• As energy flows through ecosystems • Trophic levels
in food chains and webs, the amount • Food chain
of chemical energy available to – Sequence of organisms, each of which
organisms at each succeeding serves as a source of food for the next
feeding level decreases. • Food web
– Network of interconnected food chains
– More complex than a food chain

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Energy flows through ecosystems

First Trophic
Level
Second Trophic
Level
Third Trophic
Level
Fourth Trophic
Level
in food chains and food webs
Producers
(plants)
Primary
consumers
Secondary
consumers
Tertiary
consumers • A food web is a series of interconnected food
(herbivores) (carnivores) (top carnivores)
Heat Heat Heat Heat
chains.
• Food webs occur in most ecosystems.
Solar
energy • Organisms are also assigned to trophic levels in
food webs.
Heat
– Producers are the first level.
Heat Heat
– Primary consumers are the second.
– Secondary consumers belong to the third.
Decomposers and detritus feeders
– Tertiary consumers are the fourth level.
– Detritivores and decomposers process detritus from
all trophic levels.
Fig. 3-8, p. 46

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Usable energy decreases with

Humans

Blue whale Sperm whale

Elephant
each link in a food chain or web
seal
Crabeater
seal Killer • There is less high-quality energy
whale
available to organisms at each succeeding
Adelie
Leopard
seal feeding level because when chemical
Emperor
penguin penguin energy is transferred from one trophic
Petrel
Squid level to the next, about 90% the energy is
Fish
lost as heat.
Carnivorous
plankton

Krill Herbivorous
zooplankton

Phytoplankton
Fig. 3-9, p. 46

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Usable Energy by Trophic Level

Usable energy available
at each trophic level
Heat
(in kilocalories)
Tertiary
consumers 10
• Energy flow follows the second law of (human) Heat

thermodynamics – energy lost as Secondary

heat consumers
(perch)
100
Heat Decomposers Heat

• Biomass decreases with increasing Primary

trophic level consumers
(zooplankton)
1,000
Heat

• Ecological efficiency – typically 10% 10,000

Producers
• Pyramid of energy flow (phytoplankton)

Fig. 3-10, p. 47

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Two Kinds of Primary Some ecosystems produce plant

Productivity
• Gross primary productivity (GPP)
• Net primary productivity (NPP)
• Planet’s NPP limits number of
consumers
• Humans use, waste, or destroy 10-
55% of earth’s total potential NPP
• Human population is less than 1% of
total biomass of earth’s consumers
matter faster than others do
• The rate of an ecosystem’s producers converting
energy into biomass is the gross primary
productivity (GPP).
• Some of the biomass must be used for the producers’
own respiration. Net primary productivity (NPP) is
the rate that producers use photosynthesis to store
biomass minus the rate at which they use energy for
aerobic respiration. NPP measures how fast
producers can provide biomass needed by
consumers in an ecosystem.

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Some ecosystems produce plant Terrestrial Ecosystems

matter faster than others do Swamps and marshes

Tropical rain forest
Temperate forest
• The three most productive systems are swamps and Northern coniferous
forest (taiga)
marshes, tropical rain forests, and estuaries. The Savanna
Agricultural land
three least productive are tundra, desert scrub, and Woodland and shrubland
Temperate grassland
extreme desert. Tundra (arctic and alpine)
Desert scrub
Extreme desert
Aquatic Ecosystems
Estuaries
Lakes and streams
Continental shelf
Open ocean

800 1,600 2,400 3,200 4,000 4,800 5,600 6,400 7,200 8,000 8,800 9,600
Average net primary productivity (kcal/m2/yr)

Fig. 3-11, p. 48

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What Happens to Matter in an Nutrients cycle within and

Ecosystem?
• Matter, in the form of nutrients, cycles
within and among ecosystems and in
the biosphere, and human activities
are altering these chemical cycles.
among ecosystems
• Elements and compounds move through
air, water, soil, rock and living organisms
in biogeochemical, or nutrient, cycles.
• BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES
• reservoir: temporary storage sites of
nutrients
• atmosphere, oceans, and other waters,
underground deposits

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Hydrologic Cycle Condensation

Climate
change
Ice and Condensation
snow

• Water cycle is powered by the sun Precipitation

to land
Transpiration
from plants
Evaporation
from land
Evaporation
from ocean

1. Evaporation Runoff
Surface runoff Increased
flooding
from wetland
Precipitation
to ocean
destruction
2. Precipitation Lakes and
reservoirs
Reduced recharge of
aquifers and flooding
from covering land Point
with crops and source
3. Transpiration - evaporates from plant Infiltration
and percolation
buildings pollution
into aquifer
surfaces Surface
runoff

• Water vapor in the atmosphere comes Groundwater Ocean

movement (slow) Aquifer
depletion from
overpumping
from the oceans – 84% Processes
Processes affected by humans

• Over land, ~90% of water reaching the Reservoir

Pathway affected by humans

atmosphere comes from transpiration Natural pathway

Fig. 3-12, p. 49

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Carbon dioxide
in atmosphere

Carbon Cycle Respiration

Photosynthesis
Burning
Forest fires fossil fuels
Diffusion Animals

• Based on carbon dioxide (CO2) (consumers)

• CO2 makes up 0.038% of atmosphere Deforestation

Plants Carbon
volume Transportation Respiration (producers) in plants
(producers)

• Major cycle processes Carbon dioxide

Carbon
in animals
(consumers)
– Aerobic respiration dissolved in ocean
Decomposition Carbon
Marine food webs in fossil
– Photosynthesis Producers, consumers,
decomposers
fuels

– Fossil fuel combustion and deforestation Carbon

in limestone or Compaction

• Fossil fuels add CO2 to the atmosphere Processes

dolomite sediments

and contribute to global warming Reservoir

Pathway affected by humans
Natural pathway
Fig. 3-13, p. 51

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Nitrogen Cycle The nitrogen cycle: bacteria in action

• Multicellular plants and animals • The nitrogen cycle includes the following steps:
– Specialized bacteria convert gaseous nitrogen to
cannot utilize atmospheric nitrogen ammonia in nitrogen fixation.
(N2) – Specialized bacteria convert ammonia in the soil to
nitrite ions and nitrate ions; the latter is used by plants
• Nitrogen fixation as a nutrient. This process is nitrification.
• Nitrification – Decomposer bacteria convert detritus into ammonia
and water-soluble salts in ammonification.
• Ammonification – In denitrification, anaerobic bacteria in soggy soil
and bottom sediments of water areas convert NH3
• Denitrification and NH4+ back into nitrite and nitrate ions, then into
nitrogen gas and nitrous oxide gas, which are
released into the atmosphere.

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Processes
Nitrogen
Reservoir in atmosphere

The nitrogen cycle: bacteria in action Pathway affected by humans

Natural pathway
Denitrification
Electrical by bacteria
storms Nitrogen
• Human activities have more than doubled Nitrogen oxides
from burning fuel
Volcanic
in animals
(consumers)

the annual release of nitrogen from the

activity
Nitrification
by bacteria

land into the rest of the environment, Nitrogen

in plants
mostly from the greatly increased use of Nitrates
from fertilizer
(producers)

inorganic fertilizers to grow crops. This runoff and

decomposition Decomposition Uptake by plants

excessive input of nitrogen into the air and Nitrate

water contributes to pollution and other in soil

Nitrogen Nitrogen
problems. loss to deep
ocean sediments
in ocean
sediments Ammonia
Bacteria

in soil

Fig. 3-14, p. 52

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Processes

Phosphorus Cycle Reservoir

Pathway affected by humans
Natural pathway
Phosphates Phosphates
in sewage in fertilizer Plate

• Does not cycle through the Phosphates

in mining waste Runoff Runoff
tectonics

atmosphere Runoff
Sea
birds
Phosphate

• Obtained from terrestrial rock Erosion in rock

(fossil bones,
guano) Ocean

formations Animals
(consumers) Phosphate Phosphate
food chain

dissolved in in shallow

• Limiting factor on land and in water ocean sediments

Phosphate
in deep

freshwater ecosystems
Plants ocean
(producers) sediments

• Biologically important for producers Bacteria

and consumers
Fig. 3-15, p. 53

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Sulfur Cycle Sulfur dioxide

in atmosphere
Sulfuric acid
and Sulfate
deposited as
acid rain

• Most sulfur stored in rocks and minerals Smelting

Burning Refining
coal fossil fuels

• Enters atmosphere through:

Sulfur
Dimethyl in animals
sulfide (consumers)
a bacteria

– Volcanic eruptions and processes byproduct

– Anaerobic decomposition in swamps, Sulfur

in plants
(producers)

bogs, and tidal flats Sulfur

Mining and
extraction Decay
Uptake
by plants
in ocean Decay

– Sea spray sediments

– Dust storms Processes Sulfur

Reservoir in soil, rock

– Forest fires Pathway affected by humans

and fossil fuels

Natural pathway
Fig. 3-16, p. 54

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Three Big Ideas

• Life is sustained by the flow of energy from the
sun through the biosphere, the cycling of
nutrients within the biosphere, and gravity.
• Some organisms produce the nutrients they
need, some survive by consuming other
organisms, and others recycle nutrients back to
producers.
• Human activities are altering the flow of energy
through food chains and webs, and the cycling
of nutrients within ecosystems and the
biosphere.

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