Ecosystems: What Are They and How Do

They Work?
Goals for the day
• What Keeps Us and Other Organisms Alive?
• What are the major parts of the Earth’s life-support systems? The
Spheres of Life.
• Three Factors Sustain Life on Earth
• What Are the Major Components of an Ecosystem?
• Major Biotic and Abiotic Components of an Ecosystem
• How Do Species Interact?
• Biochemical cycle
What Keeps Us and Other Organisms Alive?
Concept 3-1A The four major
components of the earth’s life-support
system are the atmosphere (air), the
hydrosphere (water), the geosphere
(rock, soil, and sediment), and the
biosphere (living things).

Concept 3-1B Life is sustained by the

flow of energy from the sun through
BIOSPHERE the biosphere, the cycling of nutrients
within the biosphere, and gravity.
 What are the major parts of the Earth’s
life-support systems? The Spheres of Life.
• Atmosphere – thin envelope or
membrane of air around the planet layer
• Hydrosphere – consists of the Earth’s
water
• Lithosphere – Earth’s crust and upper
mantle; contains nonrenewable fossil
fuels and minerals, and renewable soil
chemicals (nutrients) needed for plant life
• Biosphere – portion of the Earth in which
living (biotic) organisms exist and interact
with one another and with their nonliving
(abiotic) environment
Three Factors Sustain Life on Earth

• One-way flow of high-quality energy

from the sun
• Sun  plants  living things  environment
as heat  radiation to space
• Cycling of matter or nutrients through
parts of the biosphere
• Closed system
• Carbon, nitrogen, water, phosphorus cycle
• Gravity
• keeps Earth in orbit around it
Solar Energy Reaching the Earth
• Electromagnetic waves
• Visible light
• UV radiation
• Heat
• Natural greenhouse effect
• Energy in = energy out
• Human-enhanced global
warming
What Are the Major Components of an
Ecosystem?
• Some organisms produce the nutrients they need,
others get the nutrients they need by consuming other
organisms, and some recycle nutrients back to
producers by decomposing the wastes and remains of
organisms.
 Ecology is the study of the connection
between organisms and their living and
non-living environments
 What Are the Major Biosphere Parts of the earth's air,water, and soil
where life is found
Components of an
Ecosystem A community of different species
Ecosystem? interacting with one another and with
their nonliving environment of matter
and energy
Community Populations of different species
living in a particular place, and
potentially interacting with each
Some organisms produce the other
Population A group of individuals of the same
nutrients they need, others species living in a particular place

get their nutrients by

Organism An individual living being
consuming other organisms,
and some recycle nutrients The fundamental structural and
Cell functional unit of life
back to producers by
decomposing the wastes and Chemical combination of two or
Molecule
remains of organisms. Water
more atoms of the same or different
elements

Atom Smallest unit of a chemical element

Hydrogen Oxygen that exhibits its chemical properties
Major Biotic and Abiotic
Components of an
Ecosystem
 HOW DO SPECIES INTERACT?

Concept 5-1 Five types of species interactions affect the

resource use and population sizes of the species in an
ecosystem.

Species Interact in 5 Major Ways

Interspecific
Predation Parasitism Mutualism Commensalism
competition
 INTERSPECIFIC COMPETITION

• No two species can share vital

limited resources for long
• Resolved by:
• Migration
• Shift in feeding habits or behavior
• Population drop
• Extinction
• Intense competition leads to
resource partitioning
 PREDATION

Prey strategies
Predator strategies
•Herbivores can move to •Evasion
plants •Alertness – highly developed senses
•Carnivores •Protection – shells, bark, spines, thorns
•Pursuit •Camouflage
•Ambush •Mimicry
•Camouflage •Chemical warfare
•Chemical warfare •Warning coloration
•Behavioral strategies – puffing up
Fig. 5-3, p. 83
 COEVOLUTION
• Predator and prey
• Intense natural selection pressure on
each other
• Each can evolve to counter the
advantageous traits the other has
developed
• Bats and moths
PARASITISM
Live in or on the host

Parasite benefits, host

harmed

Parasites promote
biodiversity
 MUTUALISM
• Both species benefit
• Nutrition and protection
• Gut inhabitant mutualism
 COMMENSALISM

• Benefits one species with

little impact on other
Ecosystem Components
What Happens to Energy in an Ecosystem?
Food chain
Movement of energy and
nutrients from one trophic
level to the next
Photosynthesis → feeding
→ decomposition

Food web
Network of interconnected
food chains
Pyramid of Energy Flow
Biomass
Dry weight of all organic
matter of a given
trophic level in a food
chain or food web
Decreases at each
higher trophic level due
to heat loss

Pyramid of energy flow

90% of energy lost with
each transfer
Less chemical energy
for higher trophic levels
Production and Consumption of Energy
• Photosynthesis
• Carbon dioxide + water + solar energy glucose + oxygen
• Aerobic respiration
• Glucose + oxygen  carbon dioxide + water + energy
What happen to matter in the ecosystem ??

matter is recycled
• Matter, in the form of nutrients, cycles within
and among ecosystems and the biosphere,
in ecosystems
and human activities are altering these
chemical cycles.
What happen to matter in the ecosystem ??
Activity time
Group yourselves into 5groups
• draw and explain how does it work and give an
example what happen if the cycle is disrupted
• Carbon cycle
• Nitrogen cycle
• Water cycle
• Phosphorous cycle
• Sulfur cycle
 Water (Hydrologic) Cycle
Condensation
Rain clouds

Precipitation
Transpiration
Precipitation from plants Transpiration Precipitation
to ocean Evaporation

Surface runoff (rapid)

Evaporation Runoff
From
ocean

Infiltration and
percolation
Surface runoff
Groundwater movement (slow)
(rapid)

Ocean storage

Groundwater movement (slow)

 Water Cycles through the Biosphere
• Natural renewal of water quality: three
major processes
• Evaporation
• Precipitation
• Transpiration

• Alteration of the hydrologic cycle by humans

• Withdrawal of large amounts of freshwater at
rates faster than nature can replace it
• Clearing vegetation
• Increased flooding when wetlands are drained
 Science Focus: Water’s Unique Properties
• Properties of water due to
hydrogen bonds between water
molecules:
• Exists as a liquid over a large range
of temperature
• Changes temperature slowly
• High boiling point: 100˚C
• Adhesion and cohesion
• Expands as it freezes
• Solvent
• Filters out harmful UV
Carbon Cycle
 Carbon Cycle Depends on Photosynthesis and
Respiration
• Link between photosynthesis
in producers and respiration
in producers, consumers,
and decomposers
• Additional CO2 added to the
atmosphere
• Tree clearing
• Burning of fossil fuels
• Warms the atmosphere
Nitrogen Cycle
Nitrogen Cycles through the Biosphere: Bacteria in
Action
• Nitrogen fixed by lightning
• Nitrogen fixed by bacteria and
cyanobacteria
• Combine gaseous nitrogen with hydrogen
to make ammonia (NH3) and ammonium
ions (NH4+)
• Nitrification
• Soil bacteria change ammonia and
ammonium ions to nitrate ions (NO3-)
• Denitrification
• Nitrate ions back to nitrogen gas
• Human intervention in the
nitrogen cycle
1. Additional NO and N2O in
atmosphere from burning fossil
fuels; also causes acid rain
2. N2O to atmosphere from bacteria
acting on fertilizers and manure
3. Destruction of forest, grasslands,
and wetlands
4. Add excess nitrates to bodies of
water
5. Remove nitrogen from topsoil
Human Input of Nitrogen into the Environment

Supplement 9, Fig 16
 Phosphorus Cycle

Phosphate Rock
Phosphate Mining

Fertilizer containing phosphates Erosion

Animal waste Uplifting into rocks

Animal Excretion Dissolved Phosphates

The Sulfur
Cycle
Three Big Ideas
1. Life is sustained by the flow of energy from the sun through the
biosphere, the cycling of nutrients within the biosphere, and gravity.
2. Some organisms produce the nutrients they need, others survive by
consuming other organisms, and some recycle nutrients back to
producer organisms.
3. Human activities are altering the flow of energy through food chains
and webs and the cycling of nutrients within ecosystems and the
biosphere.