Ecosystem dynamics

• Specialist species (relatively narrow niches and fluctuates according to

environmental change e.g. panda and bamboo). Canada (burrowing owl,
whooping crane)
• Generalist species (broader niches due to adaptation to new human
environments) eat anything organic e.g. black bear, coyote
• Commensalism- interactions that benefit only one partner but neither benefits
not harm the other (epiphytes)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CG0ap-VFqvA

• Amensalism- one is always harmed but the other is unharmed or benefited (e.g.
cattle tramples grass)
Food Chain
• Apex predators- top of the food chain

• Keystone species

• Bottom-up control vs. top-down control of ecosystems

 Ecosystem influence by prey populations (e.g. low herbivores populations results in low
predator population) vs. those influenced by predator populations (e.g. wolves control deer,
elk, or moose populations)

• R and K strategies
• The more complex species diversity, the more resilient the ecosystem
• The more species in the ecosystem, the more alternative pathways are available for
energy flow, and the better able the ecosystem is to withstand stress and thereby be
resilient.

• E.g. simple Arctic food chain: phytoplankton-zooplankton-cod-ringed seal-polar

bear.
• Any missing species at the preceding trophic level can results in decline or
extinction of successive trophic level species. Potential collapse of the food chain
• Tropical forests have many more species and more alternatives in place of the
missing species in performing their ecological role.
• Ecological redundancy or functional compensation – when a given role in an
ecosystem can be played by more than one species.
• Gross primary productivity (GPP): Toral rate of biomass production

• Net primary productivity (NPP): GPP – respiration (This is the amount of energy
available for heterotrophs)
• Productivity of ecosystems depends on light, nutrients, temperature, moisture,
etc.
• Most productive ecosystems per unit are Estuaries, swamps and marshes, and
tropical rainforests, (temperate rainforests).
• Marine protected areas relevance for reduction in estuary e.g. Musquash in the
Bay of Fundy
Biogeochemical
cycles cont’d
• classified according to their source-
gaseous (atmosphere), sedimentary
(lithosphere) and hydrologic (water)
 • Often the dominant limiting factor in freshwater aquatic
systems and for terrestrial plant growth in soils
• Controls nitrogen and carbon cycles in the oceans

• Important in acidity conditions in various components (soil,

water, atmosphere)
• PH scale (diagram)

Phosphorus • Rocks-weathering-soils-plants roots (phosphate ions)-

organisms-animal waste-death (decomposition)-soil-
cycle reabsorbed by plants or bacterial breakdown-water bodies-
oceans-photoplanktons-consumption-
• {marine birds droppings (guano)
• largest source of phosphorus for human use in fertilizer
production
• sea spray
The Sulphur Cycle
• Not a limiting factor in aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems, but a necessary
component for all life and building component of proteins.
• Mostly in sedimentary rocks and sea water

• Has an atmospheric component

• Sulphur-sulphates by bacterial (aerobic and anaerobic)-plants-organism

consumption-organisms wastes/die-decomposition-recycled all over. Human
industrial impacts creates 99% of all atmospheric Sulphur dioxide and 1/3 of
carbon compounds coal/metal ore smelting, reacts with oxygen and water vapour
to produce sulphuric acid- acid deposition
THE HYDROLOGIC
CYCLE
• 70% of the earth is water

• Fixed supply of water that

recycles between reservoirs
driven by solar energy

• ocean holds 97% of earth’s water

• rest in polar ice caps,

• small proportion is available as

freshwater
• the continuous cycling of water between the various reservoirs mainly through
precipitation and evapotranspiration-hydrological cycle (diagram).
• The process involves transport of water from oceans to the atmosphere, through
terrestrial and subterranean systems, and back to the oceans, all fuelled by the
sun’s energy.
• Canada’s oldest water in deep mine 2.km below (1-2.5 million years). Estimates
11 million km3 of water, >all the world’s (rivers, swamps and lakes) put together.
Kidd Creek mine North of Timmins ON by Barbara Sherwood Lollar (2009).
• 86% of water in the atmosphere is directly evaporated from the oceans

• Involves changing phasis of water (vapour, liquid and solid).

• Channels: evaporation, evapotranspiration (soil and plants), condensation

(precipitation), sublimation
 Ecosystem dynamics
• Communities and ecosystems are not static, in response to environmental
conditions (biotic and abiotic factors).
• Changes may be fast or slow (e.g. fire disturbances or natural or human induced
climate change)
• Ecological succession (relatively slow process, involves gradual replacement of
one assemblage of species by another as environmental conditions change over
time. Happens directly (by species themselves) or indirectly.
Types of ecological succession
1. primary succession- colonization of previously unvegetated surface (e.g. lava
cools or glacial action or landslides removes previous vegetation for new ones to
take over.
Primary colonizers start with little of no soil, variable water, temperature and
nutrient conditions e.g. typically lichens, followed by mosses (faster growers),
herbaceous plants (grasses and “weeds” such as dandelions and fire weeds with
high dispersal strategies), hardy herbs and light tolerant trees, shade tolerant trees
take over.
• Seral stage – refers to each phase of the succession spectrum
Lichen
• Mature/climax community assumed final stage of succession,
“endpoint” with vegetation stability due to equilibrium between
vegetation and environment. This will persist until a disturbance
occurs
• Disturbances e.g. fires, floods, insect infestations, volcanic activity, ice
and wind storms) could interrupt stable climax (e.g. Pine beetle
destroyed over 18 million pine trees in BC and Alberta, and moving
eastwards)
Pine Beetle

Mountain pine beetle pupa and immature adult. Photo: D. Manastirski.

Mountain
Pine Beetle
destruction of
forest in BC
& Alberta
2. secondary succession- restart of
succession on a previously vegetated area,
after a disturbance to mature vegetation,
except this time not to the beginning as
soil/nutrients still present
• Succession is not always linear e.g.
recently glaciated areas hardy species
such as willow and alders may establish
in previously colonized areas.
• Cyclical succession- when natural
phenomena e.g. fire, returns a
community is returned to earlier of seral
stages of succession
• Climatic climax- key influencer of climax
vegetation
• Edaphic climax- this is where soil is the
biggest influencer in community
formation (Diagram Table Mountain, NL)
Human activities
1. the productivity of early successional phases is often higher than later stages
2. interruption of nutrient cycle and loss of nutrients
3. overall biodiversity reduction
4. species most adversely affected are often highly specialized ones at higher trophic levels
5. the species that benefits most are usually pioneer species (weeds and pests) that have broad ranges of
tolerance and efficient reproductive strategies for wide dispersal
6. climate change effects
Changing ecosystems
• Inertia- ability of an ecosystem to withstand
change vs resilience- ability to recover to
original state following disturbance

• Natural (normal environmental change, fire,

climate, floods, etc.)
• Invasive species
• Human influence
Invasive species in Canada
• 1442 invasive species known in Canada (fish, plants, insects and invertebrates)

• Great Lakes (180 invasive species), new species every 8months,

 Invasive species in Canada

Eurasian Watermilfoil (Invasive Species Council of BC) Purple loosestrife Quebec & Manitoba
Grass Carp (Asian carp)
Largemouth bass (BC) killing prey fish and spreading diseases
Sea lamprey in the Great Lakes

By the 1950s, lamprey had nearly

decimated sturgeon and lake
trout populations.
Lake trout yields dropped from 15
million pounds in the early 1940s
to just 300,000 pounds by the late
1960s.
• Why Are Invasive Species a Concern?

• Invasive species are concerning for the following reasons:

 compete directly with native species for food and habitat;

 reduce local biodiversity, and put added pressures on endangered or at-risk species;

 spread diseases like Lyme disease to humans or botulism to fish and shorebirds through aquatic and land-based
food webs;

 kill agricultural crops and native trees; and

 cost billions in management fees and lost economic value of crops, forests and fisheries.

• While the costs of living with invasive species are difficult to pin down, researchers studying the issue in 2004
found the economic impact of just 16 non-native species (including the Asian longhorn beetle, gypsy moth, ruff
and the horn fly) — on everything from crop yield to fisheries to tree death — was between $13.3 billion and $34.5
billion every year. These 16 species represent just 1.1 per cent of the estimated 1,442 invasive species currently
in Canada.
Gypsy moth and caterpillar
Human influences