Energy Transfer/flow

Devoy Douglas
Animals which feeds on the plants are
then
eaten by other animals and so on and
hence energy travels through a series of
organisms where each feed on the
proceeding one.

This sequence is known as a food chain or

the grazing link in the ecosystem.
Each stage (each organism) in the food chain is
referred to as a trophic level.

NB – trophos = food.
A green plant or any other photosynthetic
organism which occupies the first level is
referred to as a producer
The primary consumer is the name given to h
te
animal which occupies the second trophic
level.
The secondary consumer occupies the h
trid
trophic level.
The tertiary consumer occupies the fourth
trophic level.
In a food chain the number of trophic levels is
usually 4 or 5 and there is hardly any cases
where it goes up to 6.

The main reason why a food chain is not

normally long is because as you move down
the energy gets less and less.
Another reason which has recently been
proposed is that the availability of enough
food of the preferred type and terrotiral space
could also contribute to food chains being
shorten by restricting the number of end of
chain organisms.
Terrotorial space in this case means that
if hte
food chain was very long then the available
space could not support so much individual.
Diagram
s
Estimation are that in some ecosystems
primary consumers does not eat as much
as 80% of primary productions.

Instead the material remains in the plants until

they die and then are decomposed or consumed
by other organisms called detritus feeders
where the material at that time is called
detritus.
This type of food chain is referred to as a
detrital food chain.

A tropical moist forest is a good example of a

ecosystem where the detrital link is more
important than the grazing link.
 Producers
These are of course autotrophic organisms a
nd
includes green plants plus algae.
They also include the blue – green bacteria
which can photosynthesize.
Phytoplankton are responsible for the majority of
photosynthesis in aquatic ecosystems and
these are microscopic algae and blue – green
bacteria.
On the other hand, it is the larger plants kile
trees and grasses which dominates food
production on land.

Some scientists refer to producers as primary

producers.
 Primary Consumers
They feed on the producers and the majority
is called herbivores.

Some of these primary consumers don’t actually

eat the producer but instead parasitize it.
Such parasites includes:
- Aphids
- Fungi
Other plants (e.g. broomrape orobanche) whc
ih is
an unusual plant without chlorophyll.
Other plants which have chlorophyll system
but still parasitize another plant.
It is therefore also a producer. An example is
the mistletoe.

Some common herbivores on land are insects,

reptiles, birds and mammals.
In water some common herbivores are:
Small crustaceans like water flea, crab, larvae
and barnacles.
Molluscs – like bivalves (mussels and clams).
Most molluscs here are filter feeders.
Zooplanktons – this include single celled
animals (protozoans) plus some of the
very small animals some mentioned
above.
Zooplanktons feeds on phytoplanktons.
 Secondary and Tertiary and other Top
Consumers.

The secondary feeds on the herbivores and

hence are regarded as flesh eaters
(carnivores).
It is possible that some are also omnivores.
Tertiary consumers which feeds on secondary
are also carnivores.
Other top consumers which feeds on h
te
tertiary are also carnivores.
Secondary and tertiary consumers can fall in
any on of the following categories:

 Predators – hunts, capture and kill their

prey.
 Carrier feeders – feeds on corpses.
 Parasites – do not eat their prey but feeds
off their host organism while it continues to
live.
Examples of predator food chains.
1. Plants(such as leaves) → slug → frog
→grass snake →stout
2. Rose bud sap → aphid → lady bug
→ spider → insectivores bird →
hawk
Carnivores becomes larger and fewer in number
at each successive trophic level of a food
chain.
This is however not the case for parasite o
fod
chains as in such cases the parasites gets
smaller at successive trophic levels and
typically increase in number.
 Decomposers and
Detritivores (Detrital
food chain)
The bodies of dead organisms provides a sources
of energy and raw materials (nutrients) for
other organisms.
Another source of energy and nutrients for
those other organisms are the waste
materials passed from the bodies of living
The organisms which feed on the dead
organisms and the excretory products
are decomposers and the detritivores.
 Decomposers
These aremicro organisms, mainly fungi
and bacteria which feed on dead organic
matter.
They are therefore regarded as saprotrophs.
They feed by way of passing their digestive
enzymes into the dead material which
digests portions of it.
They then absorb digested portions into h
teri
bodies.
Meanwhile decomposers are doing their o
jb
they cause valuable nutrients like carbon,
phosphorous and nitrogen to be released.
They contributes to recycling.
 Detritivores

As decomposers feed they leave fragments

which are extremely small but of course
does not enter their bodies.
Such fragments are called detritus and h
tey
provide food for the detritivores.
The differences between the detritivores a
nd
decomposers are:
Detritivores are usually larger.
Detritivores takes in their food and then digest
them inside their bodies while the decomposers
first digest their food then takes it into their
bodies.
Detrivores includes:
Found in estuarine habitats – ringworms.
Found in freshwater – sludge worms.
Found in land – wood lice, mite, spring tails,
maggots, earth worms.
Marine – sea cucumber.
Detritivores may be eaten by carnivores whc
ih
may then be eaten by other carnivores.
This subsequently builds up a detrital o
fod
chain (food chain based on detritus).
The difference between the grazing food chan
i
and the detrital food chain is the primary
producer.
Here living primary producers starts a grazing
food chain while dead producers forms the
detrital food chain.
Example of detrival food chain.
Leaf litter → earth worms → black bird→
sparrow hawk
Dead animal → blow fly and blow fly maggot
→ common frog →grass snake
How fast or how slow decomposition occurs
varies with the climate and the substrate.
Decomposition is faster in warm and moist
places like tropical rain forests while it is
much slower in cool and or dry conditions.
That explains the presence of so little litter on
the rain forest floor and the low humus
content in rain forest and the opposite found
on temperate forest floors.
Animals particles decomposes much faster h
tan
plant parts.
In some cases it takes animals parts just weeks to
decompose while in plants many years.
In some instances decomposition in plants
relies on fungi which have to first produce the
enzyme cellulase which softens the wood so
that animal (detritivores) can penetrate it and
feed.
 Food Webs
A food chain is just a part of a much more
complex feeding relationship known as a
food web.
A food web is a much more complex form of a
food chain.
Itshows all the feeding relationships in
an ecosystem.
It shows that most heterotrophs do not ujst
feed on one but a few or several organism.
It shows that some organisms feed in boht
grazing and detrital food chains.
Such organisms which feeds in both grazing
and detrital includes particularly carnivores
at higher trophic levels.
Many carnivores have highly varied diets and
operates as secondary, tertiary, quaternary
and higher consumers.

Humans and some other animals feeds on

organisms at all trophic levels as they
consumes animals, plants, fungi.
These organisms are called omnivores.
Also seen in a food web is the complex
interlink between the detrital and
grazing food chains.
An example of this is where earth worm is an
herbivores in a grazing food chain since it
feeds on fine rootlets and at the same time it
is a detritvores.
The linkage between the two also includes dead
bodies and waste products from all levels of
the grazing chain entering the detritous
chain.
Diagra
m
Diagra
m
 Ecological
Pyramids
Charles Elton in the 1920’s was the first
person to use a pyramid diagram.

He based his pyramid on field observations of

the number of animals in different size
classes.
 Energy
Transfer
The organic molecules which are produced by
plants are energy rich and that is what
supplies all other organisms with both
chemical materials and energy.
His model did not include primary producers
neither did it distinguish between
detritivores and decomposers.

He however noted that predators wer

typically larger than their prey.
The American ecologist Raymond Lindeman in
the 1940’s made suggestion that Elton’s idea
could be used to represent the feeding of
organisms on each other regardless of their
size.

In other words he suggested that the pyramid

could be adapted to a tropic model.
It was however observed that it might be easy
and straight forward to assign animals to
different size classes.
It is much more difficult to find out hteri
trophic levels.
Pyramids makes it easy to the following to be
compared:
Different ecosystems.

Seasonal variation within a particular

ecosystem.

Change in ecosystem.
 Type of Pyramids
The three type of pyramids used in biology aer:
Pyramids of Numbers – this is based on
counting the numbers of organisms at
each trophic levels.
Pyramids of Biomass – measures the weight
(normally dry mass) of organisms at each
trophic levels.
Pyramids of Energy – which monitors the
energy content of the organisms at each
trophic level.

Of the 3, itis the energy pyramids which is

seen as the most important since it deals
directly with the fundamentals of food
chain, namely energy flow.
 Pyramid of Numbers
They usually come up with this by counting hte
number of organisms found in a given area
then group them into their respective trophic
levels as best as is possible.
As the organisms are grouped we usually see a
progressive decrease in the number of
organisms at each successive level.
The following are some problems which a
er
associated with the pyramid of number:
Producers vary greatly in size yet a massive
producer like an oak tree is given the same
status as a very small producer like a
microscopic algae.
This is why in some cases we do not get a ru
te
pyramid shape.
An example of this is shown in the figure
below where instead of the oak which is the
producer being the greatest in number it is the
primary consumer which is, while the
producer is the least.
Another factor which contributes to us not
getting a true pyramid is in the case of
parasites.
Diagram of pyramid of
number
The presence of parasites along with massive
producers (in size) can lead to a pyramid
looking inverted when compared to the
original above.

It is difficult to ascertain the trophic level of

some organisms.
No account is made for juveniles and other
immature forms of a species whose diet
and energy requirements may be different
from those of the adults.
Some individuals are so great in number that it
becomes impossible to represent them
accurately on the same scale as other species
in the food chain.
An example of this is where we have several
million black fly feeding on a single rose
bush.

This relationship cannot be effectively drawn

to scale on the pyramid.
Diagra
m
 Pyramid of
Biomass
Thisis at times used to at least partially sovle
some of the problems that affects the
pyramid of number.

Biomass is the total mass of the organisms

estimated at each trophic level.
Biomasses are found by weighing the organisms
and it is also important to know how many
organisms have been weighed.

That therefore make the tasks involved in hte

pyramid of biomass more laborious than
those in the pyramid of number.
Itis also subsequently more expensive as moer
equipment are required.
Pyramid of biomass usually work with dry
masses.
Dry masses are usually achieved by one of h
te
following methods:
1. Estimating it after determining the wet
mass of the organism.
2. Use destructive methods like killing some
of the organisms and heat their bodies at
1050 C at several intervals until a constant
is reached.
This heating removes the excess moisture o
rfm
the body of the organism.
 Draw backs associated with the pyramid of
biomass

There are cases where the rate of consumption

(loss through being used as food) more or less
equals to the rate of production.
What this will be indicating is that there is
no productivity or in other words it doesn’t
give any indication of productivity.

Productivity in this case means the amount of

materials and energy being passed from one
trophic level to the next in a given period of
time. example one year.
Example is where a fertile land with grass htat
is heavily grazed may be found with a smaller
standing crop but have a higher productivity
than a less fertile and ungrazed pasture.
Small producers e.g. algae reproduces and
grows at a faster rate and subsequently are
eaten at a faster rate than the larger ones,
plus they die more regularly than them.
In other words, they have a high turn over raet
(i.e. the algae, etc).
How this pose a problem is although the
standing crop of the algae etc may be
small when compared to large trees, their
productivity may be the same.
In other words, the phytoplanktons (algae ect)
may have the same productivity as a tree, but
when their biomass is found it would not be
as great as that of the tree regardless of the
fact that they could both support the same
amount of animal life.
This explain why in some pyramid of biomass
we get what is called inverted pyramids.
(Here on the first two levels are inverted).
Generally speaking the larger longer lived
plants and animals have lower turn over
rates than the smaller short lived
plants/algae or animals and accumulates
materials and energy over a longer period.
Here the producer (or phytoplankton) is smalerin
biomass than the primary consumer
(zooplankton) which is not the norm.
However the rest of the pyramid is normal.

Also worth mentioning is the fact thatif a

pyramid of number was taken from the same
ecosystem it, would show something
different where the producers would be
much greater than the primary consumer.
The inverted pyramid in the fig above does not
usually hold right throughout the year.

It usually does hold for the spring

(bloom). But does for the rest of the year.
 Pyramid of Energy
It can be used to overcome some of the
problems associated with the pyramid of
biomass and of course pyramid of
number.
It is the most fundamental and ideal way of
representing relationships between
organisms in different trophic levels.
Each bar in such a pyramid represents the
amount of energy per unit area or volume
that flows through the trophic level in a
given period of time.
 Advantage of Pyramid of
Energy
It takes the rate of productivity into account
unlike the other two pyramids which are
both more interested in the standing states
of the organisms at a particular moment in
time.
Input of solar energy can always be added as
an extra rectangle at the base of the
pyramid.
It can compare different ecosystems plus it anc
compare conditions within the same
ecosystem.
Plus it is at no time inverted.

Disadvantage
Data required are very difficult to obtain sn
ice
they require more measurement than the
others.
 Problems with Ecological
Pyramids
Identifying an organism’s trophic level – this is
the most fundamental problem as many
organisms feed at several trophic levels.
Assigning all plant material to the producer
level is inappropriate – this is the opinion
of many ecologists.
They form this opinion since many plant have
some organs which doesn’t contain any
chlorophyll and hence doesn’t produce any
food, but are instead products.

These organs include fruits, seeds, tubers.

Scientists also argue they chlorophyll which is
so abundant in the bodies of the producer
cannot be digested by many herbivores.
Dead organic matter (DOM) – is often not
included in pyramid diagrams.
Although as much as 80% of all energy fixed
by producers may not be eaten by consumers
but by detritivores or is used by decomposers.
 Biogeochemical Cycles – The cycling of Matter
This along with energy flow is jointly the maojr
aspect of ecosystem.
Most nutrient or mineral cycles have w
to
components, namely:
1. Reservoir Pool (geological Component) – this
includes rock and other deposits in the
oceans and the atmosphere.
It is these deposits which forms the maojr
reservoirs of the mineral.

2. Cycling Pool (Biological Component) – this

includes the organisms which in some way
help to convert one form of a mineral into
another so that the mineral can be recycled.
This biological component includes producers,
consumers and especially decomposers.
In a cycle various elements combines to
form complex organic molecules.
Later on these complex molecules are broken
down by decomposers etc to simpler organic
and inorganic materials which can be used
again to make the living material of living
organisms.
Exchanges between the active cycling pools
and the reservoir pool are typically limited
and often slows processes.

An Example of this is the weathering of

phosphate rock and fixation by lightening
of nitrogen into nitrates during thunder
storms.
Man usually actively generally speed up
movement of materials through cycles and this
may fundamentally upset the balance of
cycles.

This may lead to build up of materials at one

point in the cycle (pollution).
 The Nitrogen
Cycle
Nitrogen in the atmosphere (N2) is very inn
and subsequently a lot of energy is required
to split the bonds in the molecules in order
for nitrogen to combine with other elements
to form other compounds like nitrates and
nitrites.
Certain bacteria are the only organisms capable
of splitting the nitrogen molecules.
They do so by a process called nitrogen fixation
where they use the nitrogen to form nitrites
and nitrates.
Nitrogen fixation is the main way by
which nitrogen enters the biotic component
of the ecosystem.
 Nitrogen Fixation
This is a process which uses energy since such
is
needed to separate the two nitrogen atoms
from each other.
Nitrogenase is the name of the enzyme whc
ih
along with energy from ATP causes the
splitting of the nitrogen molecules into two
nitrogen atoms.
The nitrogen molecules can also be split
without the enzyme to give nitrogen atoms
but this requires much more energy which it
gets from ionizing events in the atmosphere
namely lightening and cosmic radiation.
They can also use energy from industrial
processes to split the N2 molecules.
They produce a great amount of
ammonia industrially annually in order
to make nitrogenous fertilizers such as
ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3) and urea
(CO(NH2)2).
The process is called the Haber – Bosh process
where hydrogen and nitrogen are heated at
high temperature and pressure in the presence
of a catalyst forming ammonia.
Nowadays they fix about the same amount of
nitrogen that is fixed naturally
commercially.
Scientists
are still not clear as to how htsi
massive fixing of nitrogen artificially
will impact on the environment.
One concern is that there is no massive
artificial means by which some of this
nitrogen taken away artificially is returned
to the atmosphere.
About 5 – 10% of the nitrogen that is xifed
occurs as a result of ionizing events like
lightening in the atmosphere.
Here as the lightening splits the nitrogen
molecule it causes it to react with oxygen in
the atmosphere to form nitrogen oxide.
N2 +2O2→lightening 2NO
This nitrogen oxide formed now react with
more oxygen in the atmosphere to form
nitrogen dioxide.
2NO+ O2 →2NO2
As the rain come down the nitrogen dioxide
reacts with the water forming nitrate ions.
+ -
3NO2 + H2O → 2H + 2NO3 + NO
 The living nitrogen fixers are of two types,
namely:

1. - Symbiotic Nitrogen Fixing bacteria –

example rhizobium bacteria in root nodules.
The bacteria enters the young plant through its
root hair then the bacteria cause the cortical
cells of the root to proliferate forming a
swelling (root nodule).
In the cells of the nodule the bacteria multiply
rapidly fixing atmospheric nitrogen and built
it up into amino acids and proteins.

2. Non symbiotic nitrogen fixing microorganisms

– examples azotobacter and clostridium.
They live on humus in soil.
3. Blue green algae – example phylum
cyanophyte these fix nitrogen and are
very important in aquatic and tundra
habitats.
In the symbiotic bacteria the plant gains
nitrogen in the form of ammonia from the
bacteria while the bacteria gets energy and
certain nutrients such as carbohydrates
from the plant.
Legumes includes clover, soya beans, and peas.
Legumes are probably the greatest natural
source of fixed nitrogen.
In some areas legume can contribute as much as
100 times more fixed nitrogen than free living
bacteria (non symbiotic).
Both the symbiotic and the non – symbiotic
bacteria are able to extract nitrogen from
the air.
Afterwards they use the enzyme nitrogenase
plus a lot energy from ATP to break the
bond holding the two nitrogen atoms
together.
After the bond has been broken nitrogen wil
react with hydrogen which comes from
carbohydrates made by the legumes or from
the humus in the soil.

The reaction between the nitrogen and h

te
hydrogen yields ammonia.
This ammonia later undergo more chemical
reactions to form amino acid.

The amino acid later is converted to protein

nucleic acid and other nitrogenous
compounds like vitamins and pigments.
Diagram showing the nitrogen
cycle
Diagra
m
Diagra
m
 Decay and
Decay Nitrification
Dead proteins undergo a series of oxidations
which involves certain aerobic bacteria and
fungi plus oxygen.
Egested material and excretory products
undergo similar reaction.
Here the proteins are first converted to amn
io
acids then from amino acids to ammonia.
The process is called deamination.
These reaction involves the saprophytic
bacteria and fungi and are collective know
as decomposition.
 Nitrification
This pool of ammonia which is now in the soli
can be used in the following way:

 Used by special nitrifying bacteria

called chemoautotrophic bacteria.
These bacteria get their energy to make food
from chemical reactions instead of from the
sun hence the reason for the name
chemoautotrophic.

The bacteria uses the ammonia as an energy

source to fix carbon dioxide.
Nitrosomonas is the name given to the type of
nitrifying bacteria which now acts on
ammonia.
Nitrococcus is another such bacteria.
Here the following reactions occurs under h
te
influence of the nitrosomonas and
nitrococcus.
Ammonia reacts withcarbon dioxide to ofrm
ammonium carbonate.
The ammonium carbonate formed then reacts
with oxygen to form nitrous acid.
(NH4)2CO3 + 3O2 → 2HNO2 + CO2+
3H2O+
energy
The energy released is used for the synthesis of
organic compounds.

The nitrous acid formed immediately combines

with certain available salts example calcium
and magnesium salts to form the appropriate
nitrate example calcium nitrite. Ca(NO2)2.
The following reaction (s) then occur under h
te
influence of another nitrifying bacteria called
nitrobacter.
The nitrite is oxidized to nitrate.
Ca(NO2)2 + O2 → Ca(NO3)2 +
energy
The energy released is used for synthesis of
organic compounds.
 Other synthetic
bacteria
1. Chemosynthetic -This include iron bacteria
which lives in streams which runs over
iron containing rocks.
They oxidizes iron salts.

2. Sulphur bacteria – they are colorless and

live on decaying organic matter where
they oxidize hydrogen sulphide to water
and sulphur.
 3. Photosynthetic Bacteria
There are of course two main types of
autotrophic bacteria, namely:
chemosynthetic and photosynthetic.
Photosynthetic bacteria are able to build
carbon dioxide into organic compounds
using sunlight.
The pigment which absorbs the light is caled
bacteriochlorophyll.
These bacteria however do not take the
hydrogen to build the carbohydrate from water,
instead they take it from hydrogen sulphide.
light

CO2 + 2H2S → CH2O + 2S + H2O

bacteria chlorophyll
 O
r
6CO2+ 12H2S → C6H12O6 + 6H2O +
12S infrared
light
Bacterochlorophyll are either green or purple.
Hence we have green sulphur bacteria a
nd
purple sulphur bacteria.
These sulphur bacteria dwells at the bottom of
lakes, ponds and rock pools where anaerobic
decay bacteria leads to the formation of a lot
of hydrogen sulphide.
 Denitrification
This is carried out by an organism known as
denitrifing bacteria.
These bacteria are facultative aerobes a
nd
includes Pseudomonas denitrificans and
Thiobacillus denitrificans.
They live in the soil or water where of course
oxygen is scarce.
They however do carry out aerobic respiration
but they do not get the oxygen from pure
oxygen itself.

Instead what they do is to extract their oxygen

for respiration from nitrates which are in the
soil.
While the nitrate is being broken down to
extract oxygen energy is given off which
is more than the energy given off during
anaerobic method.

Also nitrate is released as a waste product o

rfm
the process plus nitrous oxide is also made.
The nitrogen now escape into the atmosphere.
Decomposition counter balances nitrogen
fixation but not completely since more
nitrogen fixation occurs especially due to
fertilizer production.
Denitrifying bacteria reacts better in
conditions where oxygen is scarce (anaerobic
conditions).
One way to create such condition is to get
an area water logged.
When water logging occurs the bacteria
becomes more active breaking down nitrates
to nitrogen.
Some farmers ensures that their soils remani
fertile by trying to get as much nitrates to
remain there by doing one of or all of the
following:
1. Plough or dig land to improve drainage
and aeration hence avoiding anaerobic
conditions.

2. Avoid over flooding crops by

artificial means.
Here it seems that the denitrifying bacteria
respires using pure oxygen when such is
present but when pure oxygen is absent they
extract oxygen from nitrates and maybe other
compounds.