Module 6
THE
BIOSPHERE
AND ITS
NATURAL
RESOURCES
The biosphere is
• Part of the planet earth’s outer shell including air, land, and
water in which living organisms exist or that is capable of
supporting life
• Global ecological system integrating all living beings and their
relationships, including their interaction with the elements of
the lithosphere (rocks), hydrosphere (water), and atmosphere
(air)
• Closed and self-regulating system sustained by grand-scale
cycles of energy and of materials– in particular carbon,
nitrogen, certain minerals, and water
• Fundamental recycling processes are photosynthesis,
respiration, and the fixing of nitrogen by certain bacteria
• Disruption of basic ecological activities in the biosphere can
result from pollution
Objectives
• Describe the concept of the ecosystem
• Identify the limiting factors present in different
ecosystems
• Describe the characteristics of man-made
ecosystems
• Determine the impacts of human activities to the
different ecosystems
• Distinguish the renewable to non-renewable
resources
• Determine the importance of different resources
in the environment
Forest Ecosystem
Forest Ecosystem
A forest is a community
of trees, shrubs, herbs,
and associated plants and
organisms that cover a
considerable area that use
oxygen, water and soil
nutrients as the
community attains
maturity and reproduces
itself.
• THE ONLY THING CONSTANT
ABOUT FOREST ECOSYSTEMS
—
THEY NEVER STOP CHANGING!
• Natural changes:
fire, storms, drought, flood,
death and disease
• Man-made changes:
harvesting, farming, trails,
development, and recreation
Freshwater Ecosystems
• Includes: lakes, ponds, rivers, streams,
wetlands
• Freshwater contains little to no dissolved
salts.
• The plant and animal life depends on the
depth of the water, how fast the water
moves, the amount of nutrients, sunlight,
and oxygen available
Lakes and Ponds
• In the shallow areas close to the shores, plants and animals
are abundant.
• This nutrient-rich area is known as the littoral zone.
• Farther out from the shore, the open water that gets enough
sunlight for photosynthesis is dominated by tiny plants and
animals known as zooplankton and phytoplankton.
• A lake with a large amount of plant nutrients is known as a
eutrophic lake.
• The number of bacteria increases and uses all the available
oxygen.
• The diversity of the species declines.
• Lakes usually become eutrophic over a long period of time ,
but the process can be accelerated by sewage, fertilizer and
animal waste.
Wetlands
• Wetlands are areas of land that are
covered with water for at least part of the
year.
• The two main types of freshwater
wetlands are marshes and swamps.
• Marshes contain non-woody plants and
swamps contain woody plants or shrubs.
Marsh Swamp
Threats to Wetlands
• The importance of wetlands as purifiers
of wastewater and absorbers of other
hazardous flood waters is now
recognized.
• Wetlands are also vitally important as
habitats for wildlife.
• The Philippine government and most
countries now prohibit destruction of
certain wetlands.
Rivers
• Many rivers originate from excess water in
mountains.
• At its headwaters, a river is usually very cold
and highly oxygenated.
• As it progresses, a river may broaden,
become warmer, lose oxygen, and flow more
slowly.
• Its characteristics may change as the land
and climate change through which it flows.
Pasig River
Threats to Rivers
• Industries use river water in the manufacturing
processes and as a receptacle for waste.
• These practices have polluted rivers with
toxins, killing river organisms and making river
fish inedible.
• Pesticides and other poisons runoff into rivers
and coat river beds with toxic sediments.
• Dams alter river flow and may destroy fish
habitats.
Marine Ecosystems
• Includes: estuaries, coral reefs, oceans,
and polar ecosystems
• Marine ecosystems contain dissolved salt.
• In oceans, lack of water is not a problem.
Therefore, the types of organisms present
are dependent upon temperature, sunlight
available, and nutrients.
Estuaries
• ecosystem where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes
with salt water from the ocean.
• contain plenty of light and nutrients which support large
populations of plants and animals.
• plants and animals that live in estuaries are able to tolerate
variations in salinity because the salt content of the water
varies as the fresh and salt water mix.
• Threats:
Estuaries provide harbors, access to the ocean, and
connections to rivers. As a result, many of the world’s largest
cities are built on estuaries.
Because of this, many estuaries have become polluted.
Estuaries
Coral Reef
• Coral reefs are limestone islands in the sea
that are built by coral animals called polyps.
• Thousands of species of plants and animals
live in the cracks and crevices of coral reefs,
making coral reefs among the most diverse
ecosystems on Earth.
• Corals can only live in warm salt water where
there is enough light for photosynthesis.
Therefore, coral reefs are only found in
shallow, tropical seas.
Threats to Coral Reefs
• If the water surrounding a
reef is too hot or cold, or if
fresh water drains into the
water surrounding a reef,
corals have trouble
producing limestone.
• If the water is too muddy, too
polluted, or too high in
nutrients, algae that live
within the corals will die or
grow out of control and
smother the corals.
• Oil spills, sewage, pesticide,
and silt runoff have all been
linked to coral reef
destruction.
The Ocean
• Ocean covers nearly 75% of the Earth’s
surface.
• Plants can only grow where there are
nutrients and enough light for
photosynthesis.
• Therefore, the open ocean is one of the
least productive of all ecosystems.
• The depths of the ocean are perpetually
dark, and most of the food consists of
dead organisms that fall from the surface.
The viper fish is
a deep-sea fish
that lives at
depths of 600m
or more.
• The density of
salt water
permits many
jelly like animals
to remain
buoyant and
move through
the sea.
Threats to the Ocean
• The oceans are huge but are
becoming increasingly more
polluted.
• Overfishing is also destroying
fish populations.
Urban Ecosystem
• Urban areas often regarded as ecologically destructive
• Distinctive features
– Urban climate
• Air flow
• Air pollution
• Increased humidity
• Water quality reduced
• Lower soil water and groundwater
• Encapsulated countryside
– an urban ecosystem that requires human management to survive
– Either ancient habitats or previously managed land
– Often unique communities
• Urban wildlife
– Some found the new resources advantageous e.g. urban fox
– Gardens have increased local plant biodiversity
Agroecosystem
Agroecosystem Defined
• A model for the functioning of an agricultural
system, with all inputs and outputs. An
ecosystem may be as small as a set
of microbial interactions that take place on the
surface of roots, or as large as the globe.
• An agroecosystem may be at the level of the
individual plant-soil-microorganism system, at
the level of crops or herds of domesticated
animals, at the level of farms or agricultural
landscapes, or at the level of entire agricultural
economies.
Characteristics of Agroecosystem
• The energy that drives all autotrophic ecosystems, including agroecosystems, is either
directly or indirectly derived from solar energy. However, the energy input to
agroecosystems includes not only natural energy (sunlight) but also processed energy
(fossil fuels) as well as human and animal labor.
• Biodiversity in agroecosystems is generally reduced by human management in order to
channel as much energy and nutrient flow as possible into a few domesticated species.
• Evolution is largely, but not entirely, through artificial selection where commercially
desirable phenotypic traits are increased through breeding programs and genetic
engineering.
• Solar energy influences agroecosystem productivity directly by providing the energy
for photosynthesis and indirectly through heat energy that influences respiration, rates
of water loss, and the heat balance of plants and animals.
• Nutrient uptake from soil by crop plants or weeds is primarily mediated by microbial
processes.
• Although agroecosystems may be greatly simplified compared to natural ecosystems,
they can still foster a rich array of population and community processes such
as herbivory, predation, parasitization, competition, and mutualism.
• Widespread use of synthetic chemical pesticides has bolstered farm production
worldwide, primarily by reducing or eliminating herbivorous insect pests.
THE END
