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1 Energy

2 FUNCTIONS OF AN ECOSYSTEM
• The function of an ecosystem is a broad, vast and complete dynamic system.
• It can be studied under the following three heads.
•
• Nutrient cycling (biogeochemical cycles)
• Ecological succession or ecosystem development
• Energy flow
•
3 ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION

 The first plant to colonize an area is called the pioneer community.

 The final stage of succession is called the climax community.
 A climax community is stable, mature, more complex and long-lasting.
 The stage leading to the climax community is called successional stages or seres.
 Each transitional community that is formed and replaced during succession is called a stage in
succession or a seral community.
•
4 Primary Succession

 Primary succession takes place where no community has existed previously.

 Such areas include rock outcrops, newly formed deltas and sand dunes, emerging volcano islands
and lava flows, glacial moraines etc.
 In primary succession on a terrestrial site, the new site is first colonised by a few hardy pioneer
species that are often microbes, lichens and mosses.
 The pioneers over a few generations alter the habitat conditions by their growth and
development.
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5 Primary Succession

 The pioneers through their death any decay leave patches of organic matter in which small
animals can live.
 The organic matter produced by these pioneer species produce organic acids during
decomposition that dissolve and etch the substratum releasing nutrients to the substratum.
 Organic debris accumulates in pockets, providing soil in which seeds can become lodged and
grow.
 As the community of organisms continues to develop, it becomes more diverse and competition
increases, but at the same time, new niche opportunities develop.
 The pioneer species disappear as the habitat conditions change and invasion of new species
progresses, leading to the replacement of the preceding community.
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6 Secondary Succession

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 Secondary succession is the sequential development of biotic communities after the complete or
partial destruction of the existing community.
 A mature or intermediate community may be destroyed by natural events such as floods,
droughts, fires, or storms or by human interventions such as deforestation, agriculture,
overgrazing, etc.
 This abandoned land is first invaded by hardy species of grasses.
 These grasses may be soon joined by tall grasses and herbaceous plants.
 These dominate the ecosystem for some years along with mice, rabbits, insects and seed-eating
birds.
 Eventually, some trees come up in this area, seeds of which may be brought by wind or animals.
 And over the years, a forest community develops.
 Thus, an abandoned land over a period becomes dominated by trees and is transformed into a
forest.

•
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Difference Between Primary and Secondary Succession

 Unlike in the primary succession, the secondary succession starts on a well-developed

soil already formed at the site.
 Thus, secondary succession is relatively faster.
•
8 Autogenic and Allogenic Succession

 When succession is brought about by living inhabitants of that community itself, the process is
called autogenic succession, while change brought about by outside forces is known as allogenic
succession.
 Autogenic succession is driven by the biotic components of an ecosystem.
 Allogenic succession is driven by the abiotic components (fire, flood) of the ecosystem.

9 Q
• In the grasslands, trees do not replace the grasses as a part of an ecological succession because of
a)insects and fungi
b)limited sunlight and paucity of nutrients
c) water limits and fire
d)None of the above

10 Ans
 Answer: c) water limits and fire

 Grasses have one good trick to monopolise a place.
 In the dry season the grasses dry up and cause fires which destroy other plant species and their
seeds.
 Also, grasslands develop in regions with scanty rainfall where plant growth cannot be achieved.
 Though forests form the climax community in most of the ecosystems, in the grassland
ecosystem grasses form the climax community.

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 Thanks to fire and lack of water.

11 Succession in Plants

 Succession that occurs on land (dry areas) where moisture content is low for e.g. on a bare rock is
known as xerarch.
 Succession that takes place in a water body, like ponds or lake is called hydrarch.
 Both hydrarch and xerarch successions lead to medium water conditions (mesic) – neither too dry
(xeric) nor too wet (hydric).
•
12 Succession in Water

 In primary succession in water, the pioneers are the small phytoplankton, and they are replaced
with time by free-floating angiosperms, then by rooted hydrophytes, sedges, grasses and finally
the trees.
 The climax ecosystem again would be a forest.
 With time the water body is converted into land.
 Another important fact is to understand that all succession whether taking place in water or on
land, proceeds to a similar climax community – the mesic.
13 Homeostasis in Ecosystem

 Homeostasis is the maintenance of stable equilibrium, especially through physiological (through

bodily part functions. E.g. Cooling your body through sweating processes.
 In ecology, the term homeostasis applies to the tendency for a biological system to resist
changes.
 Ecosystems are capable of maintaining their state of equilibrium.
 This capacity of the ecosystem of self-regulation is known as homeostasis.
•
14 Homeostasis in Ecosystem

 For example, in a pond ecosystem, if the population of zooplankton increases, they consume a
large number of the phytoplankton and as a result, food would become scarce for zooplankton.
 When the number of zooplanktons is reduced because of starvation, the phytoplankton
population start increasing.
 After some time, the population size of zooplankton also increases, and this process continues at
all the trophic levels of the food chain.
 Note that in a homeostatic system, negative feedback mechanism induced by the limiting
resource (here its scarcity of food) is responsible for maintaining stability in an ecosystem.
 However, the homeostatic capacity of ecosystems is not unlimited as well as not everything in an
ecosystem is always well regulated.

15 ENERGY FLOW

16 ENERGY FLOW

• Energy is the basic force responsible for all metabolic activities.

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• The flow of energy from producer to top consumers is called energy flow which is unidirectional.
• The study of Trophic level interaction in an ecosystem gives an idea about the energy flow
through the ecosystem.
•
17 Trophic level
 A trophic level is the representation of energy flow in an ecosystem.
 The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food chain.
•
18 Trophic level interaction

 Trophic level interaction deals with how the members of an ecosystem are connected based on
nutritional needs.
•
19 Trophic level
 Energy flows through the trophic levels from producers to subsequent trophic levels is
unidirectional.
 Energy level decreases from the first trophic level upwards due to loss of energy in the form of
heat at each trophic level.
 This energy loss at each trophic level is quite significant.
 Hence there are usually not more than four-five trophic levels (beyond this the energy available is
negligible to support an organism).
 The trophic level interaction involves three concepts namely
1)Food Chain
2)Food Web
3)Ecological Pyramids
•
20 Food Chain

 Transfer of food energy from green plants (producers) through a series of organisms with
repeated eating and being eaten link is called a food chain.
 E.g. Grasses → Grasshopper → Frog → Snake → Hawk/Eagle.
 A food chain starts with producers and ends with top carnivores.
 Types of Food Chains:
 1) Grazing food chain
 2) Detritus food chain
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21 Grazing food chain

 The consumers which start the food chain, utilising the plant or plant part as their food,
constitute the grazing food chain.
 In terrestrial ecosystem
 For example, in a terrestrial ecosystem, the grass is eaten by a caterpillar, which is eaten by lizard
and lizard is eaten by a snake.

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and lizard is eaten by a snake.

 In Aquatic ecosystem
 In Aquatic ecosystem phytoplankton (primary producers) are eaten by zooplanktons which are
eaten by fishes and fishes are eaten by pelicans.
22 Detritus food chain

 This type of food chain starts from organic matter of dead and decaying animals and plant
bodies from the grazing food chain.
 Dead organic matter or detritus feeding organisms are called detrivores or decomposers.
 The detrivores are eaten by predators.
 In an aquatic ecosystem, the grazing food chain is the major channel for energy flow.
 In a terrestrial ecosystem, a much larger fraction of energy flows through the detritus food chain
than through the grazing food chain.

23 Food Web

 Multiple interlinked food chains make a food web.

 Food web represents all the possible paths of energy flow in an ecosystem.
 If any of the intermediate food chains is removed, the succeeding links of the chain will be
affected largely.
 The food web provides more than one alternative for food to most of the organisms in an
ecosystem and therefore increases their chance of survival.
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24 Food Web

25 Types of Biotic Interactions in a Food Web

• ‘0’ is no effect
• ‘–’ is detrimental
• ‘+’ is beneficial.
26 Ecological Pyramids

 The pyramidal representation of trophic levels of different organisms based on their ecological
position (producer to final consumer) is called as an ecological pyramid.
 The pyramid consists of a number of horizontal bars depicting specific trophic levels. The length
of each bar represents the total number of individuals or biomass or energy at each trophic level
in an ecosystem.
 The food producer forms the base of the pyramid and the top carnivore forms the tip.
 Other consumer trophic levels are in between.
 The ecological pyramids are of three categories:
1)Pyramid of numbers,
2)Pyramid of biomass
3)Pyramid of energy or productivity.
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27
Pyramid of Numbers

 Pyramid of numbers represents the total number of individuals of different species (population)
at each trophic level.
 Depending upon the size, the pyramid of numbers may not always be upright, and may even be
completely inverted.
 It is very difficult to count all the organisms, in a pyramid of numbers and so the pyramid of
number does not completely define the trophic structure for an ecosystem.
28 Pyramid of numbers – upright

 In this pyramid, the number of individuals is decreased from lower level to higher trophic level
 This type of pyramid can be seen in the grassland ecosystem and pond ecosystem.
 The grasses occupy the lowest trophic level (base) because of their abundance.
 The next higher trophic level is primary consumer – herbivores like a grasshopper.
 The individual number of grasshoppers is less than that of grass.
 The next energy level is a primary carnivore like rats.
 The number of rats is less than grasshoppers, because, they feed on grasshoppers.
 The next higher trophic level is secondary carnivore like snakes. They feed on rats.
 The next higher trophic level is the top carnivore like Hawk.
 With each higher trophic level, the number of individual decreases.
 In this pyramid, the number of individuals is increased from lower level to higher trophic level.
E.g. Tree ecosystem.

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29 Pyramid of Biomass

 Pyramid of biomass is usually determined by collecting all organisms occupying each trophic
level separately and measuring their dry weight.
 This overcomes the size difference problem because all kinds of organisms at a trophic level are
weighed.
 Each trophic level has a certain mass of living material at a particular time called the standing
crop.
 The standing crop is measured as the mass of living organisms (biomass) or the number in a unit
area.
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30 Pyramid of Biomass – upright

 For most ecosystems on land, the pyramid of biomass has a large base of primary producers with
a smaller trophic level perched on top.
 The biomass of producers (autotrophs) is at the maximum.
 The biomass of next trophic level i.e. primary consumers is less than the producers.
 The biomass of next higher trophic level i.e. secondary consumers is less than the primary

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consumers.
 The top, high trophic level has very less amount of biomass.

31 Aquatic ecosystems- inverted pyramid of biomass

 In contrast, in many aquatic ecosystems, the pyramid of biomass may assume an inverted form.
(In contrast, a pyramid of numbers for the aquatic ecosystem is upright)
 This is because the producers are tiny phytoplankton that grows and reproduces rapidly.
 Here, the pyramid of biomass has a small base, with the consumer biomass at any instant
exceeding the producer biomass and the pyramid assumes an inverted shape.
32 Pyramid of Energy

 To compare the functional roles of the trophic levels in an ecosystem, an energy pyramid is most
suitable.
 An energy pyramid represents the amount of energy at each trophic level and loss of energy at
each transfer to another trophic level.
 Hence the pyramid is always upward, with a large energy base at the bottom.
•

33 For Example..
 Suppose an ecosystem receives 1000 calories of light energy in a given day.
 Most of the energy is not absorbed. some is reflected to space
 Of the energy absorbed only a small portion is utilized by green plants, out of which the plant
uses up some for respiration.
 Therefore only 100 calories are stored as energy-rich materials.

34 For Example..
 Now suppose an animal, say a deer, eats the plant containing 100 calories of food energy.
 The deer use some of it for its metabolism and stores only 10 calories as food energy.
 A lion that eats the deer gets an even smaller amount of energy.
 Thus, usable energy decreases from sunlight to producer to herbivore to carnivore.
 Therefore, the energy pyramid will always be upright.
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35 Ecological Efficiency

 Ecological efficiency describes the efficiency with which energy is transferred from one trophic
level to the next.
 The number of trophic levels in the grazing food chain is restricted as the transfer of energy
follows 10 per cent law – only 10 per cent of the energy is transferred to each trophic level from
the lower trophic level.

 The decreases at each subsequent trophic level is due to two reasons:
 At each trophic, a part of the available energy is lost in respiration or used up in metabolism.
 A part of the energy is lost at each transformation.
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36 Limitations of Ecological Pyramids

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 It does not consider the same species belonging to two or more trophic levels.
 It assumes a simple food chain
 It does not accommodate a food web.
 Moreover, saprophytes (fungus, or microorganism that lives on decaying matter) are not given
any place in ecological pyramids even though they play a vital role in the ecosystem.

37 Pollutants and Trophic Level - Biomagnification

 Pollutants move through the various trophic levels in an ecosystem.
 Non-degradable pollutants (persistent pollutants), which cannot be broken down by detrivores,
not only move through the various trophic levels but also remain in that tropic level for a very
long duration.
 Chlorinated Hydrocarbons (Organochlorides) are the most damaging non-degradable pollutants
that are long-lasting.
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38 Applications of Chlorinated Hydrocarbons (CHC)

 CHCs are used in the production of polyvinyl chloride (a synthetic plastic polymer used to make
PVC pipes).
 Chloroform, dichloromethane, dichloroethane, and trichloroethane are useful solvents.
 These solvents are immiscible with water and effective in cleaning applications such as
degreasing and dry cleaning.
 DDT, heptachlor and endosulfan are were widely used as pesticides.
39 Effects of CHC

 Dioxins (toxic by-products produced when organic matter is burned in the presence of chlorine in
industrial or natural processes such as volcanic eruptions and forest fires), and some insecticides,
such as DDT, are persistent organic pollutants.
 DDT was widely used a few decades ago as an effective pesticide and insecticide.
 It was later identified as a persistent organic pollutant, and its usage was phased out in almost all
developed countries.
 It accumulated in food chains and caused eggshell thinning in certain bird species.
 In India, it is still being used by civic administrations as a mosquito repellent (disease vector
control).
 In India, traces of DDT spray used three decades ago can still be found on the walls of homes.
 Crops that are grown in fields that were sprayed with DDT in the last decades show substantial
traces of the insecticide.
 DDT residues continue to be found in mammals all across the planet.
40 Effects of CHC

 The traces of persistent organic pollutant are found in human breast milk.
 In some species of milk-producing marine mammals, males typically have far higher levels, as
females reduce their concentration by transfer to their offspring through lactation.

41 Two main processes

• Movement of these pollutants involves two main processes :

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Movement of these pollutants involves two main processes :

1)Bioaccumulation
2)Biomagnification
42 Bioaccumulation

 Bioaccumulation is the gradual accumulation of pollutants or other substances in an organism.

 Bioaccumulation occurs when the rate of loss of the substance from the body of the organism
through catabolism (breakdown of complex molecules in living organisms), or excretion is lower
than the rate of accumulation of the substance.
 As persistent organic pollutants like DDT are long-lasting, the risk of bioaccumulation is high
even if the environmental levels of the pollutant are not high.
43 Biomagnification

 Biomagnification refers to progressive bioaccumulation (increase in concentration) at each

tropical level with the passage of time.
 In order for biomagnification to occur, the pollutant must have a long biological half-life (long-
lived), must not be soluble in water but must be soluble in fats. E.g. DDT.
 If the pollutant is soluble in water, it will be excreted by the organism.
 Pollutants that dissolve in fats are retained for a long time.
 Hence it is traditional to measure the amount of pollutants in fatty tissues of organisms such as
fish.
 In mammals, milk produced by females is tested for pollutants since the milk has a lot of fat.
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