FUNCTIONS OF THE ENVIRONMENT ( ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS)

WHAT IS THE ECOSYSTEM

The ecosystem is the basic unit of our environment and comprises living organisms
and non-living and how they interact with each other.
In simple words, a geographical area where plants, animals, and other organisms, as
well as weather and landscape, coexist to form a life bubble is called an ecosystem or
ecological system. The respective study is called ecology.
The term ecosystem was first used by Arthur Tansley (a British ecologist) in which one
of his publications in 1935, whereas the term was actually coined by A.R. Clapham at
the request of Tansley. At first, Tansley included only organisms but later on the
environment as well.
Further other scientists also contributed and explored this field; some of them are G.E.
Hutchinson, H.T. Odum, and E.P. Odum, among many others.

The ecosystem study is based on these four main factors:

I. Abiotic (Non-living things)
II. Biotic (Living Beings)
III. The mutual interaction between biotic and abiotic
IV. The space they occupy
Structure of Ecosystem
It includes the substances or things that make the ecosystem. It consists of two types of
components:
1. Biotic Components
Biotic components refer to all living components in an ecosystem. Based on nutrition,
biotic components can be categorised into autotrophs, heterotrophs and saprotrophs (or
decomposers).

Autotrophs (auto=self; troph=nutrition/nourishment)

They are the organisms that prepare their own food. They can also be called producers.
Producers include all plants. They are called autotrophs as they can produce food
through the process of photosynthesis. Consequently, all other organisms higher up on
the food chain rely on producers for food. They are the first line in the food chain.
a. Photoautotrophs (Photo=light): The autotrophs that prepare their food by using
sunlight are called photoautotrophs. They do so via photosynthesis in the presence of
sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide. For eg, Green plants, Bacteria (Cyanobacteria),
algae, etc.
Note: Photoautotrophs are often confused with photoheterotrophs which, although use
light, but instead Carbon dioxide, they use other organic materials as sources of carbon
and cannot prepare their own food.
b. Chemoautotrophs (Chemo=chemicals): They are generally bacteria that synthesize
some chemical components to produce their own food. For eg., nitrogen-fixing bacteria,
iron-oxidizing bacteria, etc.

Consumers

They are those organisms that cannot synthesize food on their own and just use the
producers or other organisms as food. They can be primary (feeding on producers
directly), secondary (feeding on primary consumers), and so on. Consumers or
heterotrophs are organisms that depend on other organisms for food. Consumers are
further classified into primary consumers, secondary consumers and tertiary consumers.
 • Primary consumers are always herbivores as they rely on producers for
food.
• Secondary consumers depend on primary consumers for energy. They can
either be carnivores or omnivores.
• Tertiary consumers are organisms that depend on secondary consumers
for food. Tertiary consumers can also be carnivores or omnivores
• Quaternary consumers are present in some food chains. These organisms
prey on tertiary consumers for energy. Furthermore, they are usually at the
top of a food chain as they have no natural predators.

a. Herbivore (Herb=plants; vore=kind of diet): They only consume grass or plants as

a food source. For e.g. Cows, Buffalo, deer, goats, etc.
b. Carnivore (Carni=meat): They solely depend on other animals’ flesh for their food.
For e.g., Lion, Tiger, etc.
c. Omnivore (Omni=everything): As the name suggests, they can consume anything
no matter it is plant or animal meat. For e.g. Cats, Dogs, Humans, etc.
Decomposers

Decomposers include saprophytes such as fungi and bacteria. They directly thrive on
the dead and decaying organic matter. Decomposers are essential for the ecosystem as
they help in recycling nutrients to be reused by plants.
.

2. Abiotic Components
These are the non-living components of the ecosystem. Abiotic components are the non-
living component of an ecosystem. It includes air, water, soil, minerals, sunlight,
temperature, nutrients, wind, altitude, turbidity, etc.

Physical factors: These comprise the sunlight, temperature, humidity, etc.

Chemical factors: These comprise the chemicals such as air and water components.
Functions of the Ecosystem
Ecosystem function is the capacity of natural processes and components to provide
goods and services that satisfy human needs, either directly or indirectly. Ecosystem
functions are conceived as a subset of ecological processes and ecosystem structures. It
depicts the ways of interaction of the abiotic and biotic components. The main
components of the function are

a. Physical (Energy Flow)

The energy which follows in the ecosystem is always fixed in one direction or
unidirectional.
• It always flows from producers to consumers (herbivores to carnivores) and
cannot be vice-versa.
• The energy at each stage of transfer is lost in some amount. So if the energy
produced received by plants from sunlight is 100%, then they receive only a
few amounts of it. After consuming plants, the animals will receive maybe only
10% of the total energy, not exactly all energy.
• The energy is lost during respiration, growth, movement, and other activities.
• This is why trophic levels can be up to four or five as the energy becomes minimal
at lower trophic levels, and the organism cannot survive with that amount.
• Different energy flow models depict the transfer of energy, such as the universal
energy flow model, single channel energy flow model, and double channel
energy flow model.
b. Biological (Food, chain, Food web, and Ecological Pyramids)
Food Chain
It is a sequence or order in which one organism feeds on another. Every organism on
this earth is interconnected through the food chain i.e. each organism depends on others
for its food requirements. The main definition of the food chain is “it is the sequence of
eating and being eaten with the transfer of energy in every stage.” It represents the diet
or feeding behavior of organisms along with the flow of energy in the ecosystem. An
example of a food chain is the grass that depends on sunlight and oxygen for food which
is consumed by grasshopper feeding on grass, which gets eaten by frogs and the frogs
are taken as a diet by snakes which are eaten by an eagle and as eagles die they are
buried in the soil and decomposed by decomposers which become minerals for plants
to grow again.
Grass → Grasshopper → Frogs → Eagle → Dies and gets decomposed by
decomposers → Decomposed matters utilized by grass (Cycle continues).
The food chain can also be ordered at the trophic level. The energy moves from one
trophic level to another.
1. First Trophic Level: It includes producers which form the energy, such as green
leafy plants.
2. Second Trophic Level: The one which feeds directly on producers for energy comes
in this level. Such as the grasshopper in the above example.
3. Third Trophic Level: The one which feeds on organisms of the second trophic level
comes under this. For e.g. Frogs and Eagles.

The food chain is of two types:

 1. Grazing Food Chain: It is the one that starts from sunlight. The energy from
sunlight is transferred to the producers and then to the consumers, to the
decomposers, and again to the producers.
2. Detritus Food Chain: It is the one that begins from dead organic matter. For
instance, dead leaves are eaten by insects which are further consumed by birds
and so on.

Food Web
It is actually the interconnection or network between different food chains. It is an
intricate representation of different food chains that are interrelated. For e.g. grass can
be eaten by grasshoppers and goats; grasshoppers can be eaten by frogs, and frogs as
well goats can be eaten by one or more carnivores which can be interrelated on the basis
of feeding.
Importance of the food chain and food web
• Ecological Balance: It helps to predict the reason for the imbalance or
ecological disturbance in the ecosystem.
• Biomagnification: It is the process by which chemicals increase in
concentration at different trophic levels. It takes place through the food chain
and can be predicted by it. For, eg., the reason for the decrease in the number of
vultures was predicted to be the consumption of dead bodies of cattle which
were injected with efficient chemicals to boost their working stamina which
then entered vultures and they started to die.
c. Biogeochemical cycle (Nutrient cycling)
The biogeochemical cycle is the phenomenon by which nutrients like carbon, nitrogen,
phosphorus, etc., are available from the atmosphere or surrounding to the plants and
then to the consumers in different forms such as carbohydrates, proteins, phosphates,
etc., and get back to the atmosphere in their original form. It is the transfer of nutrients
from abiotic to biotic components and vice-versa. The biogeochemical cycle is multi-
directional in contrast to the energy flow, which is uni-directional. It includes the water
cycle, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, etc.

FUNCTIONS OF ECOSYSTEM
The functions of the ecosystem are as follows:

1. It regulates the essential ecological processes, supports life systems and

renders stability.
2. It is also responsible for the cycling of nutrients between biotic and abiotic
components.
3. It maintains a balance among the various trophic levels in the ecosystem.
4. It cycles the minerals through the biosphere.
5. The abiotic components help in the synthesis of organic components that
involve the exchange of energy.
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