Producers: Basic Source of all food

Carbon dioxide + water + solar energy -> glucose + oxygen

6CO2 + 6H2O + solar energy -> C6H12O6 + 6O2
Chemosynthesis: some organisms such as deep ocean bacteria draw energy from
hydrothermal vents and produce carbohydrates from hydrogen

Photosynthesis

Chlorophyll molecules in the chloroplast of plant cells absorb solar energy

This initials a complex series of chemical reaction in which carbon dioxide and water are
converted into sugar and oxygen

Consumers: eating and recycling to survive consumers( heterotrophic )

Aerobic and Anaerobic

Glucose + oxygen -> CO2 + water + energy

Hippo

H for habitat destruction and degradation

I for invasive species
P for pollution
P for human population growth
O for Overexploitation

Biodiversity provides us with

Natural Resources

Natural Services

Aesthetic Pleasure

1 Trophic 2 Trophic 3 Trophic 4 Trophic

Solar Energy→ Produces→ Herbivores→ Carnivores→ tertiary top consumers

Food Webs
Trophic levels are interconnected with in complicated food web

In accordance with the 2nd law of thermodynamics there is a decrease in the amount of
energy available to each succeeding organism in a food chain or web
Ecological efficiency: percentage of usable energy transferred as biomass from on tropic
level to the next (90% loss)

Gross Primary Production GPP

Rate at which ecosystems produces convert solar energy into chemical energy as biomass

Net Primary Production NPP = GPP-R

Rate at which produces use photosynthesis to store energy minus the rate at which they
use some of this energy though respiration

Soil: A renewable Resource

Soil is a slowly renewed resource that produces most of the nutrients needed of plant
growth and also help purify water

Soil format begins when bed rock is broken down by physical, chemical and
biological process called weathering
Physical and Biological
- Frost wedging
- Unloading
- Animals and plants
Chemical
- Dissolve oxygen oxidation
- CO2 carbonic acid

Mature soils or soils that have developed over a long time are arranged in a series of
horizontal layers called soil horizons.

O Horizon – Leaf Litter

A Horizon – Top soil *most important
B Horizon – subsoil
C Horizon – Parent Material

Layers in Mature Soils

Infiltration: the downward movement of water thought soil.

Leaching: the dissolving of minerals and organic matter in upper layers carry them to
lower layers.

The soil type determines the degree of infiltration and leaching

High Permeability –
Low Permeability –

Matter Cycling in Ecosystems

Nutrient cycles: Global Recycling

- Global Cycles Recycle nutrients through the earths air, land, water, and living
organisms
- Nutrients are the elements and compounds that organisms need to live, grow,
and reproduce.
- Biogeochemical cycles move these substances through air, water, soil, rock
and living organisms

Transpiration – plants give off water vapor

Effects of Human Activities on Water Cycle by:

We alter the water cycle by:
- Withdrawing large amounts of fresh water.
- Clearing Vegetation and eroding soils.
- Polluting surface and underground water
- Contributing to climate change

Carbon cycle
Exhale co2 comes out
Goes to atmosphere
1 of two things happen
Plants take it or go into solutions such as oceans
Absorbed by marine organisms
Death layers of dead bodies and turn into sedimentary rocks

Nitrogen Cycle

78% of air in nitrogen

Nitrogen taken out of the atmospheres -> converted to ammonia -> Nitrification ->
nitrates in soil -> denitrification -> back into the atmosphere

Effects of Human activities on the nitrogen cycle

We alter the nitrogen cycle by:

- Adding gases that contribute to acid rain.
- Adding nitrous oxide to the atmosphere through farming practices which can
warm the atmosphere and deplete ozone
- Contaminating ground water from nitrate ions in inorganic fertilizers
- Releasing nitrogen into the troposphere through deforestation
Effects of human activities on the Phosphorous cycle

We remove large amounts of phosphate from the earth to make fertilizer

We reduce phosphates in tropical soils by clearing forest

We add excess phosphates to aquatic systems from runoff of animals wastes and
fertilizers

Effects of human activities on the sulfur cycle

We add sulfur dioxide to the atmosphere by:

- burning coal and oil
- refining sulfur containing petroleum
- convert sulfur-containing metallic ores into free metals such as copper, lead,
and zinc releasing sulfur dioxide into the environment

The Gaia Hypothesis: Is the Earth alive?

Some have proposed that the earth’s various forms of the life control or at least influence
its chemical cycles and other earth sustaining processes
- The strong Gaia hypothesis: life controls the earths life sustaining processes
- The weak Gaia hypothesis: life influences the earths life sustaining processes