ECOSYSTEMS of the earth and underground, and as ice –polar ice, icebergs, glaciers ,

and ice frozen soil layers.

Earth’s life support system consists of four major main spherical
• The oceans which cover 71% of the globe contain about 97% of the
systems that interact with one another:
earth’s water.
1) The Atmosphere (air)
2) The Hydrosphere(water)
3.THE GEOSPHERE:
3) The Geosphere (rock, soil and sediment)
4) The Biosphere (living things) • The Geosphere consists of the earth’s intensely hot core, a thick
mantle composed mostly of rock, and a thin outer crust.
1.THE ATMOSPHERE: • Most of the Geosphere is in the earth’s interior.
• The atmosphere is a thin spherical envelope of gases surrounding the • Its upper portions contain nonrenewable fossil fuels coal, oil and
earth’s surface. natural gas and minerals that we use, as well as renewable soil
• Its inner layer, the troposphere extends only about 17 km above sea level chemicals (nutrients) that organisms need to live, grow, reproduce.
at the tropics and about 7 kms above the Earth’s north and south poles.
• it contains air that we breathe consisting mostly of nitrogen (78% of total • 4.THE BIOSPHERE
volume) and oxygen (21%). Most of the remaining 1% of air consists of • It consists of the parts of atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere
water vapour, CO2, and methane all of which are called greenhouse gases where life is found.
which absorb and release energy that warms the inner layer of the
atmosphere. CONCEPT OF ECOSYSTEM
• Without these gases, the earth would be too cold for existence of life as we
know. • The living community of plant and animals in any area altogether with the
• The next layer, reaching 17 to50 kms above the earth’s surface is called nonliving components of the environment such as soil, air and water,
constitute the ecosystem.
stratosphere.
• The term ecosystem was first proposed by AG Tansley in 1935.
• Its lower portion holds enough ozone (O3) gas to filter out 95% of the sun’s
• Its eco part means – environment and the system part mean a complex of
harmful UV Radiation. This global sunscreen allows life to exist on the coordinated units.
surface of the planet. • Ecology is the science that focuses on how organisms interact with one
another and with their nonliving environment of matter and energy.
2.THE HYDROSPHERE:
• Ecologists study interactions within and among five of these levels-
• the hydrosphere consists of all the WATER on or near earth’s surface. It organisms, populations, communities ecosystems and biosphere ( living ).
is found as water vapor in the atmosphere, as liquid water on the surface

Size : an ecosystem maybe as large as the ocean or a forest or it may be

as small as an aquarium jar containing tropical fish , green plants and
snails.
• All the ecosystems are connected to one another. for eg: river ecosystem
finally mixes into ecosystem of salt water of sea.

KINDS OF ECOSYSTEM: STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF ECOSYSTEM:

STRUCTURAL ASPECT:
1: NATURAL ECOSYSTEM 2: ARTIFICIAL ECOSYSTEM

1: NATURAL ECOSYSTEM:
• These types of ecosystems operate by themselves without any major
interference by man
• Based upon the kind of habitat these are further classified as
• i) TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEM- such as forests, grasslands, desserts
etc.

• ii) AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM: Which maybe further classified as

• a) FRESH WATER ECOSYSTEM: LOTIC ECOSYSTEM
(Running waters like
streams and rivers)

LENTIC ECOSYSTEM
(Standing water like
pond)
b) MARINE ECOSYSTEM: these include saltwater bodies which
maybe deep bodies as an ocean or shallow ones as a sea.
FUNCTINAL ASPECTS-
2. ARTIFICIAL ECOSYSTEM: ecosystem that requires
interference by man for its operation. 1) Food chains
eg: Aquarium. 2) Diversity – interlinkages between organisms
3) Nutrient cycles and biogeochemical cycles
4) Evolution.
 ii) CONSUMERS:
PRODUCERS CONSUMERS AND DECOMPOSERS: • Consumers are those living organisms that ingest other organisms and
An ecosystem consists of two biotic components: are therefore called heterotrophs.
a) AUTOTROPHIC COMPONENTS: They are self-nourishing • They derive their food directly or indirectly from producers or the
components in which fixation of light energy, use of simple green plants.
inorganic substances and manufacture of complex materials takes • Consumers are classified as:
place. a) primary consumers: in ecosystem primary consumers are
b) HETEROTROPHIC COMPONENTS: herbivores which feed directly upon producers.
• These are other nourishing components and consume the products of • in forest these are insects, amphibian, reptiles, birds, mammals.
the autotrophs • herbivorous animals include eg: hare, deer, elephants that live on
• They also attack the dead bodies of the organisms. plant life.
• The interaction of autotrophic and heterotrophic components is • in grasslands there are herbivores eg: blackbuck that feed on
universal feature of all the ecosystems whether they are located on land, grass.
in fresh water or in the ocean. • in the sea there are small fish that live on algae and other plants.
• From structural viewpoint three biotic components have been
recognized: b) secondary consumers:
i) PRODUCERS: • they are carnivorous animals that feed on primary consumers.
• Producers or the autotrophic organisms are those living organisms of • In forests the carnivorous animals are tiger, leopards, jackals
the ecosystem that utilize sunlight as their energy source and simple etc.
inorganic materials like water CO2, and salt etc to produce their own • In the sea carnivorous fish live on other fish and marine
food. animals.
• Producers are largely photosynthetic plants, and their kind varies with
their kind of ecosystem.
c) Tertiary consumers:
• For eg: in a terrestrial ecosystem the major autotrophs are the flowering
plants. • these are omnivorous animals which feeds both primary
• In the ocean they are the microscopic phytoplankton. (aquatic plants) consumers and secondary consumers.
• All producers support certain consumers and decomposers and the entire • this category also includes sometimes detrivores who feed on
environment as they produce oxygen. the decaying organic matter.

iii) DECOMPOSERS: Decomposers or detrivores or saprobes or

saprophytes are also heterotrophs who depend on dead organic matter
for their food.
FOOD CHAINS:
The role of decomposers is very important in an ecosystem, because
• A sequence of organisms, each of which serves as source of nutrients
without their activity the entire cycle of minerals will get blocked.
or energy for the next, is called a food chain.
ENERGY FLOW IN AN ECOSYSTEM: • Organic nutrients are transferred from producers to consumers and then
• Biological activities require sun as the main source of energy. to decomposers as organisms eat and in turn, they are been eaten by
other organisms.
• For eg: a plant uses solar energy in a leaf to store chemical energy in a
leaf. a caterpillar eats the leaf, a robin eats the caterpillar, and a hawk eats • This series of organism eating one and being eaten by other is called
the robin. Leaf -→caterpillar---→robin--→ hawk food chain.
• Decomposers and detritus feeders consume the waste and remains of all
General representation of food chain:
members of this and other food chains and return their nutrients to the soil
Plant Herbivore carnivore1 carnivore 2
for reuse by producers.
• Ecologists assign every type of organism in an ecosystem to a feeding
Types of food chains: there are 3 types of food chain
level or trophic level, depending on its source of food or nutrients.
1. Grazing food chain: the grazing food chains starts from green plants
• The chemical energy stored as nutrients in the bodies of organisms flows
and goes from herbivores to primary carnivores and then to
through ecosystem from one trophic level (feeding) level to another.
secondary carnivores and so on.
• Leaf -→caterpillar---→robin--→ hawk
Autotroph Herbivore primary carnivore secondary
1st trophic level 2nd 3rd 4th
carnivore.

2. Parasitic food chain:

• It goes from large organisms to smaller ones without killing.
• Hence the larger animals are the hosts and smaller animals which
fulfill their nutritional requirements from the hosts are considered
as parasites.
3. Detritus food chain:
• The dead organic remains including metabolic wastes are termed
as detritus .
 • The detritus of ecosystem go to the microorganisms and finally to • A food web is generally composed of many food chains each of
detritus feeding organism known as detrivore. which represents a single pathway up to the food web.
• The food chain so formed is called the detritus food chain. • The populations within the food web are linked by the various food
• Such ecosystems are thus less dependent on direct solar energy. chains through which organic nutrients are transferred.
• These depend chiefly on the influx of organic matter produced in • The alternative pathway in a food web help to maintain the stability
another system. of living community.
Food chain: • Example: if the rabbits in some area decrease in number , because of
• A food chain is divided into trophic levels comprised of all the organisms some infectious disease , the owls might be expected to go hungry .
that obtain their food by an identical number of steps .a given species • Under these circumstances the owls transfer their attention from
population may have one or more than one trophic levels according to rabbits to mice.
source of energy actually assimilated. • This reduces the danger of surviving rabbits , and these primary
• At each transfer of energy from one generation to another , a large part of consumers have better chance to rebuilt their number.
the energy is degraded into heat. • The greater the number of alternate pathways a food web has , the
• The producers or the autotrophs or the green plants comprise the first more stable is the community of living things make up the web.
trophic level. • If the links in the chain that make up the web of life are disrupted
• The herbivores , those organisms that consume plants , comprise the due to human activities that lead to the loss or extinction of species ,
second trophic level. the web breaks down.
• Carnivores that consume the herbivores constitute the third trophic level. • FOOD WEB IN TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEM
• There maybe higher trophic levels as well • In ecosystems , some consumers feed on a single species , but most
• Carnivores which consume third level carnivores comprise the fourth consumers have multiple food sources.
trophic level and so on • Some species are prey to single kind of predator, but many species
All food chains begin at producer level and all end at the decomposer in an ecosystem are prey to several parasites and predators.
level. • As a result individual food chains become interconnected to form a
food web.
FOOD WEB
• In most ecosystem, many different food chains possible and this
overlap and are intertwined with one another to form what is called
a community food web.
• Food web is simply a diagram of all the trophic relationships among
and between its component species.

• Eg: five linear grazing food chain:

• 1.Grass --→ grasshopper---→ Hawk
• 2. Grass --→ grasshopper---→Lizard --→ Hawk
• 3. Grass -→ rabbit --→ hawk
• 4. Grass -→ mouse --→ hawk
• 5. Grass --→ mouse--→ snake--→ hawk

Food web:

Significance of food chain and food web

1. Maintain stability of the ecosystem.
2. Information on Diversity of organisms ecosystem
3. Feeding habits of organisms in the ecosystem.