.

NOTES
OCTOBER 2021
Unit-4 Ecosystems

GRADE:7 SUB: BIOLOGY

➢ Ecosystem
• An ecosystem is a geographic area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as well as
weather and landscape, work together to form a bubble of life.
• Ecosystems contain biotic or living, parts, as well as abiotic factors, or non-living parts.
• Biotic factors include plants, animals, and other organisms.

➢ Food Chain

• Food chain is the sequence of transfer of matter and energy in the form of food from
organism to organism.
• Food chains intertwine locally into a food web because most organisms consume more
than one type of animal or plant.
• Plants, which convert solar energy to food by photosynthesis, are the primary food source.
• In a predator chain, a plant-eating animal is eaten by a flesh-eating animal.
• In a parasite chain, a smaller organism consumes part of a larger host and may itself be
parasitized by even smaller organisms.
• In a saprophytic chain, microorganisms live on dead organic matter.

BIOLOGY /NOTES /OCTOBER2021 1

.

➢ Ecological Pyramid

• Ecological pyramid is a graphical representation in the form of a pyramid showing the

feeding relationship of groups of organisms.

BIOLOGY /NOTES /OCTOBER2021 2

.

• Ecological pyramid also shows the flow of energy or biomass at each trophic level in a
particular ecosystem.

➢ Bio accumulation

• Bioaccumulation and biomagnification are two different processes that often occur in
tandem with one another.
• Bioaccumulation is the process by which toxins enter the food web through individual
organisms, while biomagnification is the process by which toxins are passed from one
trophic level to the next within a food web.
• Bioaccumulation originates at the base of a food web, usually within primary producers.
• These microscopic photosynthetic organisms absorb toxins directly and accumulate them
in their bodies over time.
• The toxins build up in their tissues because they are absorbed at a rate faster than they
can be metabolized.
• Biomagnification occurs when slightly larger organisms feed upon the contaminated
organisms and in turn absorb toxins into their own tissues.
• In other words, the toxins can be passed from producer to consumer (to consumer, to
consumer, and so on…)
• Biomagnification can continue all the way up the food web or chain. Because the amounts
of toxins become more and more concentrated at each trophic level, some of the apex
predators are at risk of gaining potentially fatal levels of toxins within their bodies.

• Governments all over the world are slowly starting to realize the importance of countering
the negative impacts of these pollutants. The production of DDT was banned in the United
States in 1972, and more chemicals are being banned each year.

BIOLOGY /NOTES /OCTOBER2021 3