Ecosystems

Essential Questions:
 What limits the production in ecosystems?
 How do nutrients move in the ecosystem?
 How does energy move through the
ecosystem?
Ecosystem
 All the organisms in a community plus abiotic
factors
 ecosystems are transformers of energy
& processors of matter
 Ecosystems are self-sustaining
 what is needed?

 capture energy
 transfer energy
 cycle nutrients
 Ecosystem inputs

constant
energy flows
input
of
through
energy
nutrients cycle

Matter cannot
Don’t forget
bethe
created
laws of or
Physics!
destroyed

nutrients inputs
can only  energy
cycle
biosphere  nutrients
 Level 4
Tertiary consumer sun
Food chains
 Trophic levels Level 3
top carnivore

 feeding relationships Secondary consumer

 start with energy from

carnivore
the sun Level 2
Primary consumer
 captured by plants
heterotrophs
 1 level of all food chains
st
herbivore
 food chains usually go Level 1
Producer
up only 4 or 5 levels
 inefficiency of energy
autotrophs
transfer
 all levels connect to Decomposers
Fungi

decomposers Bacteria
 Energy flows through food chains
secondary
loss of
consumers energy
sun (carnivores)

primary consumers
Energy is (herbivores) loss of
incorporated energy
into a
community by
what group?
producers (plants)
 Inefficiency of energy transfer sun
 Loss of energy between levels of food chain
 To where is the energy lost? The cost of living!

17%
growth

energy lost to
only this energy daily living
moves on to the 33%
next level in cellular
the food chain respiration 50%
waste (feces)
 sun
Ecological pyramid
 Loss of energy between levels of food chain
 can feed fewer animals in each level

Average of 10%
energy
available for
next level

Notice only 1% of
sunlight energy
converted by plants
 Humans in food chains
 Energy dynamics of ecosystems have important
implications for human populations
 How much energy is available if we are:

 carnivores? vegetarians?

Seems to be
easier/cheaper to
support a large
population on
grain than on
beef!
Productivity
 Primary productivity: Term for the rate
which producers photosynthesize
organic compounds in an ecosystem.
 Gross primary productivity: total amount of photosynthetic
biomass production in an ecosystem
 Net Primary Productivity = GPP – respiration cost
 Ecosystems with greater productivity have
more sunlight, water and nutrients.
What you need to be able to do:
 Using the laws of conservation of matter
and energy to do some basic accounting
and determine different aspects of energy
and matter usage in a community.

 Remember: Inputs have to equal outputs

Sample problem #1
 Total energy output?
 .75 kcal
 How much is used to
build biomass or
Secondary
Production?
 .05 kcal
 What % is not being
efficiently used for
biomass?
 93%
Sample problem #2
 A caterpillar consumes 100 kcal of
energy. It uses 35 kcal for cell
respiration, and loses 50 kcal as waste.
Determine the trophic efficiency for its
creation of new biomass.
 Total energy consumed = 100 kcal
 Lost and Respired: 35 + 50 = 85 kcal

 Total energy for growth: 15 kcal

 Efficiency (%) = 15/100 = .15 or 15%

Generalized
Nutrient consumers
cycling
producers
consumers

decomposers
nutrients
nutrients
ENTER FOOD CHAIN
made available
= made available
to producers
to producers
return to
Decomposition abiotic
reservoir
connects all abiotic
trophic levels reservoir

geologic
processes
Carbon cycle
CO2 in Combustion of fuels
atmosphere
Industry and home
Photosynthesis
Diffusion Respiration

Plants
Animals

Dissolved CO2

abiotic reservoir:
Bicarbonates  CO in atmosphere
2
enter food chain:
Photosynthesis  photosynthesis = carbon
Deposition
fixation in Calvin cycle
Animals recycle: of dead

material
Plants and algae return to abiotic:
 respiration
 combustion

Fossil fuels
Deposition of
Carbonates in sediment (oil, gas, coal)
dead material
 abiotic reservoir:

Nitrogen cycle
 N in atmosphere
enter food chain:
 nitrogen fixation by soil & aquatic bacteria
recycle:
 decomposing & nitrifying bacteria
return to abiotic:
 denitrifying bacteria Atmospheric
Carnivores nitrogen

Herbivores

Birds
Plankton with Plants
nitrogen-fixing
bacteria Death, excretion, feces
Fish Nitrogen-fixing
Decomposing bacteria bacteria
(plant roots)
amino acids
excretion
Ammonifying bacteria Nitrogen-fixing
bacteria
loss to deep sediments (soil)
Nitrifying bacteria
Denitrifying
soil nitrates bacteria
abiotic reservoir:
 N in atmosphere
enter food chain:
 nitrogen fixation by soil & aquatic
bacteria
recycle:
 decomposing & nitrifying bacteria
return to abiotic:
 denitrifying bacteria
abiotic reservoir:
 rocks, minerals, soil

Phosphorus cycle
enter food chain:
 erosion releases

soluble phosphate
 uptake by plants

recycle:
 decomposing

bacteria & fungi

return to abiotic:
 loss to ocean

sediment

Plants Land
animals Animal tissue
Urine and feces
Soluble soil
phosphate Decomposers
Loss in (bacteria and
drainage fungi)
Rocks and
minerals
Decomposers Phosphates
(bacteria & fungi) in solution

Animal tissue
and feces Aquatic Plants and
animals algae
Precipitates

Loss to deep sediment

 abiotic reservoir:

Water cycle
 surface & atmospheric water

enter food chain:

 precipitation & plant uptake

recycle:
 transpiration

return to abiotic:
 evaporation & runoff

Solar energy
Transpiration
Water vapor
Evaporation

Precipitation

Oceans

Runoff
Lakes
Percolation in soil Aquifer
Groundwater
Transpiration

Why does
water flow We will discuss
into, up process in
and out of detail soon!

a plant?
 Breaking the water cycle
 Deforestation breaks the water cycle
 groundwater is not transpired to the
atmosphere, so precipitation is not
created

forest  desert
desertification
Effects of deforestation

40% increase in runoff  60x loss in nitrogen

 loss of water  10x loss in calcium
loss into
80 nitrate levels in runoff surface water
of nitrate (mg/l )
Concentration

40
loss out of
4 ecosystem!
Deforestation
2
Why
0 is
nitrogen
1965 so 1966 1967 1968
important?
Year