ECOSYSTEM

Prepared by: Ms. Sheryl G. Docto

CS BPS Faculty
ECOSYSTEM DEFINITION
• An ecosystem is a community of plants, animals, and smaller
organisms that live feed, reproduce and interact in the same area
or environment.
• An ecosystem is a community of living and nonliving things
considered as a unit.
• Is a complex set of relationship among the living resources,
habitats and residents of an area. It includes plants, trees, animals,
fishes, birds, micro-organisms, air, eater, soil and people.
• An ecosystem is a self regulating group of biotic communities of
species interacting with one another and with their non-living
environment exchanging energy and matter.
ECOSYSTEM DEFINITION

• Ecosystems are dynamic interactions between plants, animals, and

microorganisms and their environment working together as a
functional unit.
• Ecosystems will fail if they do not remain in balance.
Ecology Term Coined by Earnst Haeckel in 1869 – Derived from
Greek words: OIKOS (Home) + LOGOS (study) - Ecology is the
scientific study of the relationships that living organisms have with
each other and with their natural environment.
• ECOLOGY is the study of ecosystems
 FUNCTION OF ECOSYSTEM
HABITAT FUNCTIONS: Ecosystems provide habitat to wild plants and animals and thus conserve
biological genetic diversity. It supports different food chains.

PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS: Production of wide range of goods ranging from food to raw materials.

REGULATORY FUNCTIONS: Ecosystem regulates essential ecological processes and life support
systems and renders stability. Responsible for cycling of nutrients between biotic and abiotic
components (biogeochemical cycles). Also, it provides many services that have direct and indirect
benefits to humans (i.e., clean, air, water and soil). Soil formation, climate regulation, etc.
Every ecosystem regulates and maintains itself and resist any stresses or disturbances up to a
certain limit. This is known as CYBERNETIC SYSTEM

INFORMATIONAL FUNCTION: ecosystems provide an essential ‘reference function’ and contribute

to the maintenance of human health by providing opportunities for spiritual enrichment , cognitive
development, recreation and aesthetic experience.
BIOTIC COMPONENTS OF ECOSYSTEM

• Different living organisms constitute the Biotic

Components of an ecosystem.

• This refers to the large life-forms such as trees and

mammals, small life-forms such as insects and algae,
and microscopic life-forms such as bacteria. Biotic or
related to life, are living factors. Plants, animals, fungi
and bacteria are all biotic or living factors.
PRODUCERS - most important component

Producers are organisms which are able to manufacture organic

compounds from inorganic substances from their environment.
Food: Produce both from themselves and for other organisms.
They depend directly on the abiotic component for their survival
and production of nutrients.
Producers are also known as autotrophs (derived from the Greek
words: “autos” meaning self and “trophe” meaning nourishment)
They induce into the ecosystem, the energy required for its
biological processes.
Producers
• Producers extract nutrients from soil or ocean and manufacture their own food
using photosynthesis, and in the presence of carbon dioxide and sunlight and
so energy from the sun powers the base of food chain. Producers also, thus
known as primary producers.
• An exception occurs in deep sea hydrothermal ecosystem where there is no
sunlight. Here the primary producers manufacture food through a process
called chemosynthesis.
• Chemosynthesis is a process of certain organism used to produce energy, takin
to photosynthesis, but without the utilization of sunlight. The energy comes
from the oxidation ( burning of chemicals which seep up from the earth crust.
So, producers are either photo-autotrophs or chemo- autotrophs.
 CONSUMERS
• Consumers are organisms that obtain nutrients by consuming other
organisms. These organisms are formally referred to as
heterotrophs (derived from the Greek words “heteros” meaning
another / different and “trophe” meaning nourishment.

• A heterotroph is an organism that cannot synthesize their own food

and must obtain it ready maid.

• They can be herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, or detritivores.

 HERBIVORES

• Animals who derive their required energy directly from consuming

the plants and plants only.

• Also known as primary consumers.

• Herbivores have special digestive systems that let them digest all
kinds of plants, including grasses.
Eg. Rabbit, cattle, horse, sheep, insects, etc.
 CARNIVORES

• Animals that feed on the other animals.

• Carnivores generally eat herbivores (secondary
consumers), but occasionally eat other carnivores also
(tertiary consumers).
Eg: lion, tiger, cats, birds of prey, sharks, frogs, etc.
PREDATORS & SCAVENGERS

• A predator is an organism that hunts and kills other organisms for

food.
Eg: lions, tigers, sharks, wolves, snakes, etc.
• Scavengers eat the food that has been killed and left behind by
predators.
Eg: vultures, racoons, hyena,etc.
• Scavengers play an important role in the ecosystem by consuming
the carcass of of animals that have been left to decompose.
• Decomposers and detritivores complete this process, by consuming
the remains left by scavengers.
 OMNIVORES

• Animals that feed on both plants and animals

• Omnivores often are opportunistic, general feeders with
neither carnivore nor herbivore specializations for acquiring
or processing food, and are capable of consuming and do
consume both animal protein and vegetation.
• Many omnivores depend on a suitable mix of animal and
plant food for long-term good health and reproduction.
Eg, humans, bear, etc.
 DETRITIVORES

• They feed on dead plant and animal matter, but perform an

additional function which is to return essential nutrients back to the
ecosystem in the process.
• Detritivores actually eat organic matter.
• They are essential for recycling of nutrients: without them dead
plant material would not be returned to the soil for new growth
Eg: worms, millipedes, sea stars, crabs, dung flies.
• Detritivores consume dead organic material such as carcasses,
fallen leaves, dead plants, animal droppings and shed skins.
• Having consumed the material, the organism then excretes or
egests waste.
• This waste contains nutrients which are thus returned to the soil,
facilitating new plant growth, or made easier for other organisms to
consume. By breaking down dead matter into smaller pieces,
detritivores speed up the process of decomposition.
 DECOMPOSERS/ SAPROBES
• These are micro-organisms which break-down organic matter into
inorganic compounds and derive their nutrition in the process.
• Decomposers break down complex compound into simpler compounds
without eating them.
For example, fungi can grow on organic matter, such as a dead tree
trunk or a piece of bread, and breaks it down and absorbing the nutrients
without eating the wood or the bread.
• These are organisms that aid in decomposition of already dead or dying
organisms.
• Decomposers secrete enzymes to digest organic matter and then
absorb resulting molecules.
Eg: bacteria, fungi, etc.
 Abiotic Components of Ecosystem

• The nonliving materials in an ecosystem, such as minerals, gases,

liquids and chemicals are referred to as abiotic or non-biotic
factors.
• Abiotic, meaning not alive, are nonliving factors that affect living
organisms. Environmental factors such habitat (pond, lake, ocean,
desert, mountain) or weather such as temperature, cloud cover,
rain, snow, hurricanes, etc. are abiotic factors.
Abiotic Components of Ecosystem

• An abiotic factor is a nonliving condition or thing, such

as climate or habitat, that influences or affects an
ecosystem and the organisms in it.
• Abiotic factors can determine which species of
organisms will survive in a given environment.