ECOSYSTEM DIVERSITY

What is an Ecosystem? It is a group of interacting organisms

(usually called a community) and the physical environment they
inhabit at a given point in time. It is much harder to delineate
ecosystems in the real world – to decide where one ecosystem
ends and another begins – because the web of interactions does
not have clean breaks . Most ecologists would say that a forest and
an adjacent lake are different ecosystems because the assemblages
of organisms inhabiting them are almost completely different and
have relatively few direct interactions. Separating two adjacent
ecosystems is particularly difficult when there is edge between
them, often called an ecotone, is a gradual transition zone. For
example, on the side of a mountain, ecosystems change
continuously in response to the climate gradient that parallels
altitude, and it is probably arbitrary to draw lines among them.
Distinguishing ecosystems is also difficult because
ecologists think about ecosystems at a variety of
spatial scales. A pool of water that collects in a hole in
an old tree and is home to some algae and
invertebrates can be considered an ecosystem. At the
other extreme, ecosystems are sometimes defined on
the basis of the movements of wide-ranging animals.
When biologists speak of the Serengeti
Ecosystem(Africa), they are referring to an area of
about 25,000 km2. At the largest known scale, the
earth’s entire biosphere can be considered an
ecosystem
Classifying Ecosystems Just as it can be difficult to delineate particular
ecosystems on the ground, it is also difficult to classify them into different
types once they are delineated . How similar must two different ecosystems
be to be considered the same type of ecosystem? Although there are
several quantitative methods for assessing similarity of community
composition, there is no standard level of similarity used to decide whether
two ecosystems are of the same type . Despite the lack of universal
standards, significant progress has been made for some countries (e.g.
Australia. Canada, United Kingdom, and United States) and regions (Latin
America and the Caribbean) on developing vegetation classification
schemes that are effectively terrestrial ecosystem classification systems .
Ecosystem classification is usually approached hierarchically. For example,
at the highest level we could separate terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems; at
a lower level freshwater, marine, and estuarine ecosystems; then
freshwater ecosystems into lakes and rivers; and so on. However, there is
no universally accepted system for doing this analogous to the kingdom-
phylum-class-order-family-genus-species system
Geography also needs to be considered when classifying ecosystems. Two
alkaline eutrophic lakes that share a very similar biota would probably be
considered the same type of ecosystem even if they are hundreds of kilometers
apart and on either side of a mountain range. On the other hand, if the
mountain range was a geographic barrier for many species and the two lakes
had quite different biotas we might decide that they are different types of
ecosystems. How can we recognize both the basic similarity of the two alkaline
eutrophic lakes and the differences that occur because of their geographic
separation? One approach involves dividing the world into regions based on
biologically meaningful patterns that shape the distribution and abundance of
species, such as climatic zones, mountain ranges, oceans that isolate terrestrial
biota, or continents that isolate marine biota. There are many examples of such
maps and they use a variety of criteria and names such as ecoregions,
ecoclimatic zones, biogeographic provinces, and biophysical regions. In one of
the most recent and ambitious examples, World Wildlife Fund-US has generated
a global map that delineates 825 terrestrial ecoregions and ecoregional maps
for the freshwater and marine realms are being developed
Class: Forest
Subclass: Deciduous forest
Group: Cold-deciduous forest
Subgroup: Natural/semi-natural
Formation :Lowland or submontane cold-
deciduous forest
Alliance :Sugar maple–yellow birch (American
beech) forest alliance
Association:Sugar maple–yellow birch (American
beech)/hobble bush forest
(This example depicts the seven levels of the US National
Vegetation Classification’s physiognomic floristic hierarchy
for terrestrial vegetation )
Ecosystem Diversity and Stability: Conservation biologists have long
been concerned that species extinctions could have dire consequences
for the stability of entire ecosystems. This idea is captured in a well
known metaphor, Imagine you were flying in a plane, looked out of the
window, and saw a rivet fall out of the wing. You might not worry too
much because there are thousands of rivets in a plane, and the loss of
one rivet would not make it fall apart and crash. In fact, several rivets
could probably fall out before the situation became dangerous, but,
eventually, if enough rivets fell out, the plane would crash. By analogy,
an ecosystem could survive the loss of some species, but if enough
species were lost, the ecosystem would be severely degraded. Of
course, all the parts of a plane are not of equal importance, and, as
explained earlier, keystone, controller, and dominant species, not all
species are of equal importance in an ecosystem. Thus it is possible
that even the loss of a single important species could start a cascade of
extinctions that might dramatically change an entire ecosystem
A good illustration of this occurred after
fur hunters eliminated sea otters from
some Pacific kelp bed ecosystems: the
kelp beds were practically obliterated
(wiped out)too, because, in the absence
of sea otter predation, sea urchin
populations exploded and consumed most
of the kelp and other macroalgae
Three mechanisms for higher diversity increasing
ecosystem stability have been proposed by Chapin et al.
(1997). First, if there are more species in an ecosystem,
then its food web will be more complex, with greater
redundancy among species in terms of their ecological
niche or role. In other words, in a rich system if a species
is lost, there is a good chance that other species will take
over its function as prey, predator, producer, decomposer,
or whatever. Second, diverse ecosystems may be less
likely to be invaded by new species, notably exotics, that
would disrupt the ecosystem’s structure and function.
Third, in a species-rich ecosystem, diseases may spread
more slowly because most species will be relatively less
abundant, thus increasing the average distance between
individuals of the same species and hampering disease
transmission among individuals.
High levels of disturbance limit diversity (e.g. on the
slopes of an active volcano), while moderate levels
of disturbance may actually promote species
diversity. For example, a forest that is subject to
occasional windstorms or ground fires may harbor
more species than a forest that is rarely affected by
disturbance. There are two possible explanations
here. First, occasional disturbances are likely to
prevent a few species from dominating the
ecosystem. (In this context, predation and disease
may also be considered forms of disturbance that
limit dominance by a few species.. Second,
disturbances are usually patchy, and this will
generate spatial heterogeneity that allows many
species to coexist.
Ecosystems and Landscapes: The mosaic of ecosystems we see from a
plane is not just a random array. There are patterns to the spatial
configurations of ecosystems. Lakes are drained by rivers and bordered
by marshes, woodlots are patches embedded in a matrix of agricultural
ecosystems, clearcuts are patches in a matrix of forests, and so on.
Human-dominated landscapes in particular have a regularity of pattern
and a sharp-edged character not found elsewhere. Ecologists call these
mosaics of ecosystems landscapes, and a subdiscipline called
landscape ecology has developed to study ecological phenomena that
exist at this scale, For example, landscape ecologists are interested in
ecosystems that occur as long, narrow strips, such as rivers and their
associated riparian (shore) ecosystems, because these ecosystems may
serve as corridors that facilitate organisms moving among ecosystems.
Also of interest to landscape ecologists are the edges between
ecosystems. The interface between a forest and a field is one example:
it will be avoided by some species and preferred by other species.
Conservation biologists are interested in landscape
phenomena for a number of reasons. Two brief examples
will suffice here. First, many endangered species are large
animals that have large home ranges – tigers, wolves,
elephants, etc. – that encompass many ecosystems. If we
wish to maintain habitat for these species, we must
maintain entire landscapes that provide for all their
needs. Second, human activities have left many natural
ecosystems isolated in a matrix of human-altered
ecosystems, and conservation biologists are concerned
with what happens along the edges of these small,
residual patches. Are they being degraded by factors that
originate externally, such as exotic species, pesticides, and
changes in local climate.
 Case Study
Mangrove Swamps: In many places the transition from the
terrestrial to marine realms is marked by dense stands of trees
and shrubs that form a type of ecosystem known as mangrove
swamps or mangal. “Mangrove” is a term that is routinely used
for at least 70 species of woody plants from 11 families that
inhabit tropical intertidal environments. Despite modest levels of
species diversity, mangrove swamps are very important and
interesting ecosystems. They support aquatic food webs and
economically valuable fisheries. For certain commercial fish
species, mangrove swamps provide cover, as well as food,
especially for young individuals. Consequently, it is common to
refer to them as nurseries.