LESSON 2: ENERGY FLOW The producers and consumers in the ecosystem can be arranged

into different feeding groups and are known as trophic level or the
Energy Flow - is one of the major factors that support the survival of feeding level.
such a great number of organisms
a. The producers (plants) represent the first trophic level.
- the amount of energy that moves along the food chain.  b. Herbivores (primary consumers) present the second
trophic level.
c. Primary carnivores (secondary consumers) represent the
third trophic level
Law of Thermodynamics in the Ecosystem
d. Top carnivores (tertiary consumers) represent the last
- explains the flow of energy at each trophic level. level.

 First law (law of conservation of energy): states that energy

can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only change
from one form to another Food Chain
 Second law: states that as energy is transferred more and
- The transfer of food energy upward from the source in
more of it is wasted. In other words, there is loss of energy
plants and other autotrophs (primary producers) through
at each step of energy flow.
herbivores (primary consumers) to carnivores (secondary,
tertiary, & quaternary consumers) and eventually to
The energy flow takes place via the food chain and food web. During
decomposers.
the process of energy flow in the ecosystem, plants being the
producers absorb sunlight with the help of the chloroplasts and a part - The series of organisms through which food nutrients travel
of it is transformed into chemical energy in the process from the producers to the different consumers and up to the
of photosynthesis. decomposers.
This energy is stored in various organic products in the plants and - Shows how the organism are related with each other by the
passed on to the primary consumers in the food chain when the food they eat.
herbivores consume (primary consumers) the plants as food. Then - The sequence of transfers of matter and energy in the form
conversion of chemical energy stored in plant products into kinetic of food from organism to organism
energy occurs, degradation of energy will occur through its - Intertwine locally into a food web because most organisms
conversion into heat. consume more than one type of animal or plant.
Then followed by the secondary consumers. When these herbivores
are ingested by carnivores of the first order (secondary consumers)
further degradation will occur. Finally, when tertiary consumers
consume the carnivores, energy will again be degraded. Thus, the
energy flow is unidirectional in nature

Energy Flow Model

1. First, energy travels in one direction, from producers to herbivores

to carnivores; it cannot flow in the opposite direction.

2. Second, when trophic levels rise, the amount of energy flow

reduces

Trophic Structure of the Community - The structure and dynamics of

a community depends on the feeding relationships between
organisms

Trophic Level - The position an organism occupies in a food chain.

- Each step of the food chain The Food Chain Consists of the following;
- The word trophic derives from the Greek word meaning to
food or feeding. Producers - photosynthetic organisms (plants or phytoplankton)
- It is simply a feeding level, as often represented in a food
chain.
Primary consumers (herbivores) - The organisms that consume the
producers
Secondary consumers (carnivores) - eat the primary consumers.  -
Tertiary consumers - carnivores that eat other carnivores.
Higher-level consumers feed on the next lower trophic levels, and so
on, up to the organisms at the top of the food chain. 
Three Different Types of Food Chains in the Ecosystem
1. Grazing food chain (GFC)
- Gets its energy directly from the sun.
- Begins with the primary producer. Primary consumers or
herbivores form the second link which get their energy from
the consumption of primary producers. Secondary
consumers or primary carnivores, the third link in the chain,
get their energy from eating herbivores. A tertiary
consumer or secondary carnivore is an animal that obtains
organic energy from eating a primary carnivore
2. Saprophytic or Detritus food chain (DFC)
- In this type of food chain, the dead organic matter occupies
the lowermost level of the food chain, followed by the
decomposers and so on.
- Begins with dead organic matter, an important source of
energy.
- A large amount of organic matter is contributed by the
death of plant’s parts, animals and their excretion products.
- These types of food chains are present in all ecosystems.
Various species of microscopic fungi, bacteria and other
saprophytes play a prominent role in decomposing organic
matter to obtain energy needed of their survival and
growth.
3. Parasitic food chain (PFC) – In this type of food chain,
large organisms either the producer or the consumer is
exploited and therefore the food passes to the smaller
organism.
Note: One major factor that limits the number of steps in a food chain
is energy.
 Energy is lost at each trophic level and between trophic
levels as heat and in the transfer to decomposers. Thus,
after a limited number of trophic energy transfers, the
amount of energy remaining in the food chain may not be
great enough to support viable populations at higher trophic
levels.
Food Web
- Also called consumer-resource system.
- A group of food chain that are linked together.
- The natural interconnection of food chains and a graphical
representation of what-eats-what in an ecological
community.
Illustrate how energy flows directionally through
ecosystems.
- They can also indicate how efficiently organisms acquire
energy, use it, and how much remains for use by other
organisms of the food web.
Two Different Types of Food Web
a. A grazing food web based on photosynthetic plants or
algae
b. A detrital food web consists of a base of organisms that
feed on decaying organic matter (dead organisms)
 Example: Decomposers  (which break down dead
and decaying organisms) and detritivores (which
consume organic detritus). These organisms are
usually bacteria, fungi, and invertebrate animals
that recycle organic material back into the biotic
part of the ecosystem as they themselves are
consumed by other organisms.
- It is an essential tool in understanding that plants are the
foundation of all ecosystems and sustain life by providing
nourishment and oxygen needed for survival and
reproduction.
Four Characteristics of Food Web
1. It consists of number of interconnected food chains through
which energy travels in an ecosystem.
2. Usually, members of higher trophic level feed upon many
organisms of lower trophic level.
3. Presence of complex food webs increases the stability of
the ecosystem.
4. More complex food webs improve the adaptability and
competitiveness of the organisms.
How Organisms Acquire Energy in a Food Web
 Energy is acquired by living things in two ways:
1. Autotrophs harness light or chemical energy
2. Heterotrophs acquire energy through the
consumption and digestion of other living or
previously living organisms.
Autotrophs - organisms capable of synthesizing their own food (more
specifically, capable of using inorganic carbon as a carbon source).
- Critical for ecosystems because they occupy the trophic
level containing producers. Without these organisms,
energy would not be available to other living organisms,
and life would not be possible.
 -  It implies how a species changes its body and behaviour to
 Example: Photosynthetic and chemosynthetic better suit its natural environment.
organisms  The process of adaptation ensures that the species which
adapts the most, survive.
 The theory of adaptation is also known as the theory of
Photosynthetic Chemosynthetic
autotrophs autotrophs survival of the fittest.
(photoautotrophs) (chemoautotrophs)  It refers to the organism’s ability to adapt to environmental
Energy source Use sunlight Use inorganic changes over time.
molecules
NOTE: Adaptation and Evolution are different

Photoautotrophs Evolution brings about drastic changes that occur in the genetic level.

- The energy source for a majority of the world’s Adaptation is a short-term process where the changes that occur are
ecosystems. usually reversible.
- Example: plants, algae, and photosynthetic bacteria
But adaptation does lead to evolution.
- Photoautotrophs harness the Sun’s solar energy by
converting it to chemical energy.
Example of Evolution: Giraffes are the tallest land mammals today,
 Gross Primary Productivity - The rate at which
but they weren’t so tall a few million years ago. Due to the
photosynthetic producers incorporate energy
competition for food with other herbivores and the leaves in the taller
from the Sun.
shrubs and trees was an untapped niche. In order to survive, Giraffes
 However, not all of the energy incorporated by
tried to adapt and later on evolve as animals with longer necks today.
producers is available to the other organisms in
the food web because producers must also grow
and reproduce, which consumes energy. Net
primary productivity - is the energy that remains Types of Adaptations
in the producers after accounting for these
organisms’ metabolism and heat loss. The net A. Structural Adaptations
productivity is then available to the primary
 These are special attributes that involve some
consumers at the next trophic level.
parts of an organism’s body, such as skin, colour
Chemoautotrophs and shape.
 These adaptations help the organisms to survive
- Primarily bacteria and archaea that are found in rare in their natural habitat.
ecosystems where sunlight is not available, such as those  Example: The blubber of a whale, the beak of a
associated with dark caves or hydrothermal vents at the
woodpecker, baleen of a humpback whale.
bottom of the ocean.
- Many chemoautotrophs in hydrothermal vents use
hydrogen sulfide (H2S), which is released from the vents,
B. Physiological Adaptations
as a source of chemical energy. This allows them to  These are mechanisms present in an organism
synthesize complex organic molecules, such as glucose, that allow it to perform certain biochemical
for their own energy and, in turn, supplies energy to the reactions to survive in its natural habitat.
rest of the ecosystem.  Example: A snake’s ability to produce venom,
mammal’s ability to maintain constant body
temperature. Even the ability of our body to
produce hydrochloric acid to digest food
LESSON 3: ADAPTATION
Adaptation C. Behavioural Adaptations
 These are ways a particular organism behaves
 The process where a species or an organism gradually to survive in its natural habitat.
becomes better acclimated to its environment.”
 Example: Migration of animals and birds
 It refers to the behavioral or physical attributes of an animal
that helps them survive better in its ecosystem. Animal
adaptation can be in the way they look (camouflage) to
escape from their predators.

ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS
1. Physiognomic Factors
A. Topography – describes the physical features of an
area of land.
o Relates to atmospheric pressure
B. Direction
2. Edaphic Factors
A. Soil – made up of minerals, pieces of rocks, and
decomposed organisms
o It comes from rocks through the process of
weathering.
o Plants rely on soil for their growth and
Levels of Biodiversity
development.
o Different plants grow on different types of soil.
B. Humus – comes from decomposed organisms.
3. Climatic Factors
A. Light – i.e., affects the process of photosynthesis
o Wavelength, Intensity, and Duration
B. Temperature – endothermic (warm-blooded) and
ectothermic (cold-blooded)
o Endothermic - organism uses energy to regulate
its body temperature internally.
o Ectothermic - organism instead relies on
external environmental factors to regulate its
body temperature.
C. Wind
D. Water – increases the ability to digest food.
LESSON 4: BIODIVERSITY & STABILITY
Biodiversity
 The variation among living organisms from different
sources including terrestrial, marine and desert
ecosystems, and the ecological complexes of which they
are a part.
 Describes the richness and variety of life on earth. It is the
Stability
most complex and important feature of our planet.
 Without biodiversity, life would not sustain.
 It refers to variabilities among plants, animals and
microorganism species.
 Biodiversity includes the number of different organisms and
Core Principles of Stability
their relative frequencies in an ecosystem.
 It also reflects the organization of organisms at different
levels.
 Biodiversity holds ecological and economic significance. It
provides us with nourishment, housing, fuel, clothing and
several other resources. It also extracts monetary benefits
through tourism.
 Biodiversity is important because it sustains the flow of
energy in the food web on earth and contributes to
environment sustainability.
 It maintains ecosystem stability by replenishing resources
from time to time.
 It increases the stability of an ecosystem because a
change in the population of one organism will have less
effect on the population of an organism that depends on it.
 The higher the diversity, the more stable the ecosystem is
because the environment is capable to support the needs
of each species.
A. Species diversity
 The variety of different types of species found in a
particular area.
 It is the biodiversity at the most basic level.
 It includes all the species ranging from plants to
different microorganisms.
B. Genetic diversity
 It refers to the variations among the genetic resources
of the organisms.
 One population of organism but with various genetic
composition.
 Every individual of a particular species differs from
each other in their genetic constitution. That is why
every human looks different from each other.
Similarly, there are different varieties in the same
species of rice, wheat, maize, barley, etc.
C. Ecosystems Diversity
 Studies variations in the biological communities in
which species live, exist, and interact.
 Different habitats of organisms
 The capability of a natural ecosystem to apply self-
regulating mechanisms so as to return to a steady state
after an outside disturbance.
A. Balance of Nature – when an organism can properly fulfill
its function in an environment.
A.1. Oxygen Cycle - refers to the movement of oxygen
through the atmosphere (air), biosphere (plants and
animals) and the lithosphere (the Earth's crust).
 - The oxygen cycle demonstrates how free oxygen is made population, per unit area
available in each of these regions, as well as how it is
used.
Population growth that is unlimited by
A.2. Carbon Cycle – it is the movement of carbon, in its
resource availability, which allows the
many forms, between the biosphere, atmosphere,
population growth rate to increase
hydrosphere, and lithosphere.
Exponential growth continuously over time
- Carbon is one of the most vital elements that sustain life
on earth.
A.3. Nitrogen Cycle - a biogeochemical process through Population growth that is limited by
which nitrogen is converted into many forms, consecutively resource availability, causing the
passing from the atmosphere to the soil to organism and population growth rate to slow as
back into the atmosphere.  Logistic growth population size increases
- It involves several processes such as nitrogen fixation,
nitrification, denitrification, decay and putrefaction. A feature of an ecosystem that restricts
- Nitrogen gas is the most abundant element in the Limiting factor a population’s size
atmosphere comprising of 78% and all the nitrogen found
in terrestrial ecosystems originate from the atmosphere.
The maximum number of organisms or
- Most important nutrient cycle for plant life.
Carrying capacity populations an ecosystem can support
- The harmonious coordination between different abiotic
and biotic elements is revealed by this cycle.

B. Biodiversity
C. Fitness of Resources – non-renewable products must be
used prudently and wisely.
D. Stewardship – the responsible use and protection of the
natural environment through conservation and sustainable
practices to enhance ecosystems.
Limiting factors within every ecosystem, such as the availability of
food or the effects of predation and disease, prevent a population
from becoming too large.
These limiting factors determine an ecosystem’s carrying capacity, or
maximum population size the environment can support given all
available resources.

Types of Stability As the population gets larger and approaches the environment’s
carrying capacity, resources become more scarce and the growth
1. Resistance - the ability of a population (or a community) to
rate slows
withstand the disturbance
2. Resilience - the ability to recover after suffering from the The logistic growth model reflects the natural tension between
disturbance. reproduction, which increases a population’s size, and resource
availability, which limits a population’s size. 

Carrying capacities can change. An ecosystem’s carrying capacity

LESSON 5: POPULATION GROWTH & CARRYING may fluctuate based on seasonal changes, or it may change as a
CAPACITY
result of human activity or a natural disaster.
A group of organisms of the same For example, if a fire destroys many trees in a forest
species living together in a particular ecosystem, the forest's carrying capacity for tree-nesting birds will
Population area decrease.

All of the organisms in a particular

area, along with the nonliving parts of
the environment with which they
Ecosystem interact

The total number of individuals in a

Population size population

Population density The number of individuals in a