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 ENG 2013 | MODULE 2

ECOSYSTEMS
Energy & Mass Flow
Nutrients Cycles

Engr. Marvin L. Samaniego, M.Sc.

Engr. Divine G. Sumalinog, Ph.D.
Course Instructors
UST Chemical Engineering Department
Lecture Objectives
 Define ecosystem and identify the parts of ecosystem.

 Differentiate food chain from food web and recognize

their importance.

 Describe how organism acquire energy in a food web.

 Explain the efficiency of energy transfers between

trophic levels in ecosystem.

 Describe how water, carbon, and nitrogen cycle

through ecosystem.
Ecosystem
System
a set of things working together as parts
of a mechanism or an interconnecting
network. –Oxford Dictionary

Ecosystem = ecological system

a community and its physical
environment treated together as a
functional system
Or more simply
Ecosystem
Composed of organisms and physical
environment of a specified area.
Rules of Ecology
By Barry Commoner

1. Everything is connected to everything else.

2. Everything must go somewhere.

3. Everything is always changing.

4. There is no such thing as free lunch.

5. Everything has limits.

 Interactions
Biomes
Ecosystem Food Webs

Community
Producers Consumers
Population

Individual
 Bohol Mangrove Forest

Biotic Factors Abiotic Factors

Philippines (all living organisms) (physical variables in an
organisms environment)
Monera, Protista, Fungi, Plants, Temperature, Water, Sunlight,
Animals Wind, Soil, Distrubance
Organisms in an Ecosystem
Tertiary Consumers
“top carnivores”

Secondary Consumers
carnivores

Primary Consumers
herbivores

Producers
Photosynthetic plants, algae, bacteria

Terrestrial Aquatic
Food Chain

Problems
• Rarely are things as
simple as linear
• Too simple
sequence of
• No detritivores – organisms
invertebrates that feed on
organic waste and dead
organisms • Typically, there are
multiple interactions -
• Chains too long
FOOD WEB
Food Web

Carnivore

Consumers
Omnivore

Herbivore

Producers
Decomposers
Detritivore
 Energy Flow

Tertiary Consumers
Decreasing available energy level

Secondary Consumers

Primary Consumers

Producers

Energy Source
Ecological Pyramid
Energy Transfer

Sun

Producers
Chemicals
Respiration
Ecological
Pyramid Consumers

Trophic
Consumers
Levels
Efficiency
Consumers
 Energetics
Study of transformation of energy in living organisms

CO2 O2 CO2

H2O C6H12O6 H2O

Photosynthesis Respiration
𝟐 𝟐 𝟔 𝟏𝟐 𝟔 𝟐 𝟐 𝟐 𝟔 𝟏𝟐 𝟔 𝟐
Ecological Pyramid
How efficient is the transfer of energy from one trophic level to next?

.1%

10% energy 1%

rule in Heat
ecological
efficiency 10%

100%
Ecological Pyramid
Ecological Efficiency
(proportion to the next level)

C3=21 5.5% Top carnivores

Detritivores and C2=383 11.4% Primary carnivores

decomposers

24.2% D=5060 C1=3368 16.1% Herbivores

P=20,810 Producers
Silver Springs, Florida (kcal/m2 yr)
Biogeochemical Cycles

Matter Conserved

Atmosphere
Biosphere Biotic Abiotic Hydrosphere
Lithosphere

CHNOPS
Biogeochemical
Cycles

Water Nitrogen
Cycle Carbon Cycle
Cycle
 Mass Transfer
How does plant get the
Matter is
matter they need? Atmosphere CONSERVED
From the atmosphere,
hydrosphere, and
lithosphere

Hydrosphere

How does matter go

How does consumers
back into the
get the matter they
environment?
need?

Lithosphere Through these

By eating plants and/or
biogeochemical cycles
other consumers
Water Cycle
Carbon Cycle
Nitrogen Cycle
 ENG 2013 | MODULE 2

ECOSYSTEMS
Energy & Mass Flow
Nutrients Cycles

END OF LECTURE