ECOSYSTEMS: WHAT ARE THEY

AND HOW THEY WORK?

CORE CASE STU DY
Tropical rain forests are found near the
earth’s equator and contain an incredible
variety of life. These lush forests are warm
year round and have high humidity and
heavy rainfall almost daily. Although they
cover only about 2% of the earth’s land
surface, studies indicate that they contain
up to half of the world’s known terrestrial
plant and animal species.
For these reasons, they make an
excellent natural laboratory for the study of
ecosystems— communities of
organisms interacting with one another
and with the physical environment of
matter and energy in which they live.
At least half of these forests have been
destroyed or disturbed by humans
cutting down trees, growing crops,
grazing cattle, and building
settlements, and the degradation of
these centers of life (biodiversity) is
increasing. Ecologists warn that
without strong conservation measures,
most of these forests will probably
be gone or severely degraded
Scientists project that disrupting these
ecosystems will have three major harmful
effects. First, it will reduce the earth’s vital
biodiversity by destroying or degrading the
habitats of many of their unique plant and
animal species, thereby causing their
premature extinction. Second, it will help to
accelerate climate change due to global
warming by eliminating large areas of
trees faster than they can grow back,
thereby reducing the trees’ overall uptake of
the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide.
Third, it will change regional weather
patterns in ways that will prevent
the return of diverse tropical rain
forests in cleared or degraded areas.
Once this tipping point is reached,
tropical rain forest in such areas will
become less diverse tropical
grassland.
Ecology - is the study of the relationships
between living organisms, including
humans, and their physical environment; it
seeks to understand the vital connections
between plants and animals and the world
around them.
Ecology also provides information about
the benefits of ecosystems and how we
can use Earth’s resources in ways that
leave the environment healthy for future
generations.
Ecosystem - community and its physical and
chemical environment. An ecosystem has a
living (biotic) and nonliving (a biotic) component.
Biotic factors - living organisms in an ecosystem.
Abiotic factors - all environmental conditions
required to support life, e.g. rainfall, sunlight
moisture, soil temperature conditions
required compounds from simple inorganic
substances with the aid of energy from the sun
(Photosynthetic autotrophs) or from inorganic
substance themselves (chemosynthetic
autothrophs).
Heterotrophy - organisms that ingest other
organisms to obtain organic nutrients.
Decomposers - heterotrophic bacteria and
fungi that obtain organic nutrients by
breaking down the remains of products of
organisms. The activities of decomposers
allow simple compounds to be recycled
back to the autotrophs.
Food chain - linear sequence of who eats
whom in an ecosystem.
Food web - networks of many interlocked
food chain, encompassing producers,
consumers, decomposers, and detritivores.
Biogeochemical cycle - the cycling of materials
through living system and back to the earth.
Nitrification - a process by which certain soil
bacteria strip ammonia or ammonium of
electrons, and nitrite (NO2) is released as a
reaction product, then other soil bacteria use
nitrite for energy metabolism, yielding nitrate
(NO3-).
Ammonification - decomposition of nitrogenous
wastes and remains of organisms by certain bacteria
and fungi.
Denitrification - reduction of nitrate or nitrite to
gaseous nitrogen( N2) and a small amount of nitrous
oxide (NO2) by soil bacteria.
Eutrophication - a process by which a body of water
becomes over- enriched with nutrients, and as a result
produces an over- abundance of plants.
Biomass - the total dry mass of all living organisms at a
given tropic level of an ecosystem.
Community - the population of all species that occupy
a habitat.
Tropic level - all organisms that are the
same number of energy transfer away
from the original source of (e.g. sun light)
that enters an ecosystem.
Nitrogen fixation - among some
bacteria, assimilation of gaseous nitrogen
(N2) from the air; though reduction
reactions, electrons become attached to
the nitrogen, there by forming ammonia
(NH3) or ammonium (NH4+).
Ecology
Cells are the basic units of life. All organisms
(living things) are composed of cells: the smallest
and most fundamental structural and functional
units of life. They are minute compartments
covered with a thin membrane and within which
the processes of life occur. The idea that all living
things are composed of cells is called the cell
theory and it is the most widely accepted scientific
theory in biology. Organisms may consist of a
single cell (bacteria, for instance) or huge
numbers of cells, as is the case for most plants
and animals.
Cell structure, organisms can be classified
as either eukaryotic or prokaryotic.
Eukaryotic cell is surrounded by a
membrane and has a distinct nucleus (a
membrane-bounded structure containing
genetic material in the form of DNA) and
several other internal parts called
organelles, which are also surrounded by
membranes. Most organisms consist of
eukaryotic cells.
Prokaryotic cell is also surrounded by a
membrane, but it has no distinct nucleus
and no other internal parts surrounded by
membranes. All bacteria consist of a single
prokaryotic cell.
Species make up the encyclopedia of life For
a group of sexually reproducing organisms, a
species is a set of individuals that can mate
and produce fertile offspring. Every organism is
a member of a certain species with certain
traits. Scientists have developed a distinctive
system for classifying and naming each species.
We do not know how many species are on the
earth. Estimates range from 4 million to 100
million. The best guess is that there are 10–14
million species. So far biologists have identified
about 1.8 million species.
These and millions of species still to be
classified are the entries in the
encyclopedia of life found on the earth. Up
to half of the world’s plant and animal
species live in tropical rain forests that are
being cleared rapidly (Core Case Study).
Insects make up most of the world’s known
species. In 2007, scientists began a $100
million, 10-year project to list and
describe all 1.8 million known species in a
free Internet encyclopedia.
Ecologists Study Connections in Nature
Ecology (from the Greek words oikos, meaning
“house” or “place to live,” and logos,
meaning “study of”) is the study of how
organisms interact with their living(biotic)
environment of other organisms and with their
nonliving (abiotic) environment of soil, water,
other forms of matter, and energy mostly from
the sun. In effect, it is a study of
connections in nature.
To enhance their understanding of
nature, scientists classify matter into
levels of organization from atoms to the
biosphere. Ecologists focus on organisms,
populations, communities, ecosystems,
and the biosphere.
A population is a group of individuals of
the same species that live in the same
place at the same time.
Examples include a school of glassfish in
the Red Sea, the field mice living in a
cornfield, monarch butterflies clustered
in a tree, and people in a country.

Genetic diversity- individuals vary

slightly in their genetic makeup, which
is why they do not all look or act
alike.
Habitat-the place where a population or
an individual organism normally lives. It
may be as large as an ocean or as small as
the intestine of a termite. An organism’s
habitat can be thought of as its
natural
“address.” Each habitat, such as a
tropical rain forest, a desert, or a pond,
has certain resources such as water, and
environmental conditions, such as
temperature and light, that its organisms
Community, or biological community,
consists of all the populations of different
species that live in a particular place. For
example, a catfish species in a pond
usually shares the pond with other fish
species, and with plants, insects, ducks,
and many other species that make up the
community. Many of the organisms in a
community interact with one another in
feeding and other relationships.
An ecosystem is a community of different
species interacting with one another and
with their nonliving environment of soil,
water, other forms of matter, and energy,
mostly from the sun. Ecosystems can range
in size from a puddle of water to an ocean,
or from a patch of woods to a forest.
Ecosystems can be natural or artificial
(human created). Examples of artificial
ecosystems are crop fields, tree farms, and
reservoirs.
Ecosystems do not have clear boundaries
and are not isolated from one another.
Matter and energy move from one
ecosystem to another. For example, soil
can wash from a grassland or crop field
into a nearby river or lake. Water flows
from forests into nearby rivers and crop
fields. Birds and various other species
migrate from one ecosystem to another.
And winds can blow pollen from a forest
into a grassland.
Biosphere - consists of the parts of the
earth’s air, water, and soil where life is
found.
- it is the global ecosystem in
which all organisms exist and can interact
with one another.