Energy and Nutrient

Flow
UNIT 1 CAPE ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Energy Flow in Ecosystems
Food Chains and Food Webs

 The transfer of food energy from producers through a series of consumers

forms a food chain.
 In the food chain, each organism represents a trophic level.
 An organism obtains only 10% of energy from the previous trophic level.
 Food webs are complex networks of interconnected food chains at different
trophic levels.
Bioaccumulation & Biomagnification

 Bioaccumulation is responsible for the increase in

concentration of a pollutant from the environment to the first
organism within a food chain.

 Biomagnification is when pollutants increase in concentration

from one trophic level to the next higher trophic level.
Ecological Pyramids

 An ecological pyramid is a geographical representation of the relationship

between the different living organisms at different trophic levels.
 It also shows the flow of energy or biomass at each trophic level in a particular
ecosystem.
 There are 3 types of ecological pyramids:
 Pyramid of numbers
 Pyramid of biomass
 Pyramid of energy
Pyramid of Numbers
 A pyramid of numbers shows the number of organisms present at each stage in a food chain.
 Example #1:
Clover  Snail  Thrush  Hawk
 Example 2 :
Oak Tree  Insects  Woodpecker
 Example 3 :
Grass  Rabbit  Flea
Pyramid of Biomass
 A pyramid of biomass shows the biomass at each trophic level, rather than the population numbers.
 There are 2 main types of biomass pyramids:
 Inverted Pyramid of Biomass
 Upright Pyramid of Biomass
Pyramid of Energy
Population Sampling
 The main assumption made from conducting population sampling is that
the results obtained will be representative of the entire population.

 There are 3 main sampling techniques:

 Random Sampling
 Systematic Sampling
 Stratified Sampling
Method for random sampling using quadrats

 Step 1: Choose a sampling area, then divide it up into a grid, for instance, 10 x 10
divisions.
 Step 2: Generate a pair of random coordinates on your grid.
 Step 3: Place the first quadrat on your grid using these coordinates.
 Step 4: Count the number of different species within this quadrat.
 Step 5: Repeat steps 1-4 so that you have a total of at least 10 counts.