ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Spring 2020
OUTLINE
Definition of Ecology and Ecosystems
Types of Ecosystems
Autotrophs and Heterotrophs
Herbivores, Carnivores, Omnivores and
Amphibians
Food Chains, Food Webs and Trophic Levels
https://landscape.soilweb.ca/landscape-evolution/
DEFINITION
The terms “ecology”, “environment” and
“organism” are very important
Ecology: The scientific study of how living
organisms (plants, animals, microorganisms) fit
into their natural environment.
Ecosystem: a biological environment consisting of
all the organisms living in a particular area, as
well as the non living physical components of the
environment with which the organisms interact,
such as air, soil, water and sunlight.
STRUCTURE OF ECOSYSTEM
The composition of biological community
including species, numbers, biomass, life
history and distribution in space
The quantity and distribution of non living
materials like nutrients, water etc.
The conditions of existence such as
temperatures, light etc
Abiotic components are mainly of two types:
(a) Climatic Factors:
Which include rain, temperature, light, wind, humidity
etc.
(b) Edaphic Factors:
Which
What include
are thesoil, pH, topography
functions minerals etc.
of important
factors in abiotic components?
FUNCTIONS OF ABIOTIC COMPONENTS
Soil is a mixture of weathered rock fragments, mineral
particles, organic matter, and living organisms. Soils
provide nutrients, water, a home, and a structural
growing medium for organisms.
The atmosphere provides carbon dioxide for
photosynthesis and oxygen for respiration. The processes
of evaporation, transpiration and precipitation cycle
water between the atmosphere and the Earth’s surface.
Solar radiation is used to heat the atmosphere and to
evaporate and transpire water into the atmosphere.
Most living tissue is composed of a very high percentage
of water, and even exceeding 90%. The protoplasm of a
very few cells can survive if their water content drops
below 10%, and most are killed if it is less than 30-50%.
BIOTIC COMPONENTS/CONSUMERS
1. Consumers are living organisms in the ecosystem that get
their energy from consuming other organisms.
Conceptually, consumers are further subdivided by what
they eat.
2. Herbivores eat producers, carnivores eat other animals and
omnivores eat both. Along with producers and decomposers,
consumers are part of what is known as food chains and webs,
where energy and nutrient transfer can be mapped out.
3. Consumers can only harvest about 10 percent of the energy
contained in what they eat, so there tends to be less biomass
at each stage as you move up the food chain.
Primary First-Order Consumers or Herbivores
Secondary Consumers or Second Order Consumers
or Primary Carnivores
Tertiary Consumers or Third Order Consumers
Quaternary Consumers or Fourth Order Consumers
or Omnivores
DECOMPOSERS
1. Decomposers are the living component of the ecosystem that
breaks down waste material and dead organisms. Examples of
decomposers include earthworms, dung beetles and many
species of fungi and bacteria.
2. The decomposers are known as Saprotrophs (i.e., sapros =
rotten, trophos = feeder).
3. They perform a vital recycling function, returning nutrients
incorporated into dead organisms to the soil where plants can
take them up again.
4. In this process, they also harvest the last of the sunlight energy
initially absorbed by producers. Decomposers represent the
final step in many of the cyclical ecosystem processes.
AUTOTROPHS AND HETEROPTROPHS
Living things are divided according to how
they obtain food.
Autotrophs: Living things which directly make
their food from the environment. E.g. plants.
Heterotrophs: Living things which get their
food from other plants or animals.
Concept of Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants,
animals and micro-organisms (biotic factors) in an area
functioning together with all of the non-living physical
(abiotic) factors of the environment.
In simple words Ecosystem is the components and interaction
between living and non-living factors of an area.
TYPES OF ECOSYSTEM
Terrestrial ecosystems Aquatic ecosystems
Tropical rainforest Swamp and Marsh
Temperate evergreen
Lake and stream
forest
Temperate deciduous
Open ocean
forest Algal beds and reefs
Boreal forest
Estuaries and
Savannah
brackish waters
Tundra
Extreme desert, rock,
sand and ice
Cultivated land
FOREST ECOSYSTEM
High rainfall
Large number of organism and flora
Highly diverse population
Stability of ecosystem is very sensitive.
Features of forest ecosystem
Forest canopy
Forest floor
Forest soil
DESERT ECOSYSTEM
High Temperature, intense sunlight and low
water
Flora and fauna are very poorly developed
and scarce
Organisms are xeric adaptive
Scarely populated
Sand desert, stony desert, rock desert, plateau
desert, mountain desert, cold desert
GRASSLAND ECOSYSTEM
Marginal rainfall
Vegetation is dominated by grasses
Unimproved wild-plant communities
Densely populated
Features:
Temperature, Precipitation, Humidity,
Topography, unadaptive plants and animals
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM
Low temperature and sunlight
Soil and vegetation is submerged
Flora and fauna had adapted
Densely populated
Function:
Recycles nutrients
Purify water
Responsible for proper rainfall
Recharge ground water
Levels of Organization in an
Ecosystem
Organism is a living thing
Species is defined as a group of
organisms capable of
interbreeding and producing
fertile offspring.
Population is a group of
organisms of the same species
living in a defined area
Community is a group of
interacting organisms sharing
an environment
Ecosystem is a system of
interaction among all
organisms of an area and their
interactions with the abiotic
environment
FOOD CHAIN
The feeding of one organism upon another in a
sequence of food transfers is known as a food chain.
Another definition is the chain of transfer of energy
(which typically comes from the sun) from one
organism to another.
Trophic Level is the feeding position in a food
chain.
CONT’D
FOOD WEB
Most animals are part of more than one food chain and eat
more than one kind of food in order to meet their food and
energy requirements.
A food web is a set of interconnected food chains by which
energy and materials circulate within an ecosystem
FOOD WEB
DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FOOD CHAIN AND FOOD
WEB
FOOD CHAIN FOOD WEB
(just one path of energy) (everything is connected!)
FOOD CHAINS FOLLOW A FOOD WEBS SHOW HOW PLANTS & ANIMALS
SINGLE PATH AS ANIMALS EAT ARE INTERCONNECTED BY DIFFERENT
EACH OTHER. PATHS.
FOOD WEBS show how plants and animals are connected in many ways to help them all
survive. FOOD CHAINS follow just one path as animals find food.
Assimilation: the biomass of the present
trophic level after accounting for the
energy lost due to incomplete ingestion of
food, energy used for respiration, and energy
lost as waste
Net consumer productivity: energy content
available to the organisms of the next trophic
level
Net production efficiency (NPE): measure
of the ability of a trophic level to convert the
energy it receives from the previous trophic
level into biomass
Trophic level transfer efficiency (TLTE):
energy transfer efficiency between two
successive trophic levels
ENERGY LOST IN FOOD CHAIN
ENERGY FLOWS THROUGH
ECOSYSTEMS
COMMUNITY STRUCTURE
Physical appearance: Relative sizes,
stratification and distribution of its population
Species diversity or richness: The number of
different species
Species abundance: The number of
individuals of each species
Niche structure: The number of ecological
niches.
FACTORS OF ECOLOGICAL STABILITY
Inertia or persistence: The ability of a living
system to resist being disturbed or altered
Consistency: The ability of a living system
such as a population to keep its numbers
within the limits imposed by available
resources
Resilience: The ability of a living system to
bounce back after an external disturbance
that is not too drastic
