Unit 2: Ecosystem

Definition and concept of Ecosystem:

 The term Ecology was coined by Earnst Haeckel in 1869.
 It is derived from the Greek words Oikos- home + logos-
study.
 Ecology deals with the study of organisms in their natural
home interacting with their surroundings.
 The surroundings or environment consists of other living
organisms (biotic) and physical (abiotic) components.
 Sir Arthur G. Tansley coined the term ecosystem in 1935.
 An ecosystem is a group of biotic communities of species
interacting with one another and with their non-living
environment exchanging energy and matter.
 Now ecology is often defined as the study of ecosystems.
 The living community of plants and animals in any area
together with the non-living components of the environment
such as soil, air and water, constitute the ecosystem.
 An ‘Ecosystem’ is a region with a specific and recognizable
landscape form such as forest, grassland, desert, wetland or
coastal area.
 The nature of the ecosystem is based on its geographical
features such as hills, mountains, plains, rivers, lakes,
coastal areas or islands.
 It is also controlled by climatic conditions such as the
amount of sunlight, the temperature and the rainfall in the
region.
 The geographical, climatic and soil characteristics form its
non-living (abiotic) component.
 The living part of the ecosystem is referred to as its biotic
component.
 Ecosystems are divided into terrestrial or land based
ecosystems, and aquatic ecosystems in water.
Structure of Ecosystem (biotic and abiotic):
 Composition and organization of biological communities
and abiotic components constitute the structure of an
ecosystem.
(I) Biotic Structure
 The plants, animals and microorganisms present in an
ecosystem form the biotic component. These organisms
have different nutritional behaviour and status in the
ecosystems and are accordingly known as Producers or
Consumers, based on how do they get their food.
(a) Producers:
 They are mainly the green plants, which can synthesize their
food themselves by making use of carbondioxide present in the air
and water in the presence of sunlight by involving chlorophyll,
the green pigment present in the leaves, through the process
of photosynthesis.
 They are also known as photo autotrophs.
 There are some microorganisms also which can produce organic
matter to some extent through oxidation of certain chemicals in the
absence of sunlight. They are known as chemosynthetic organisms
or chemo-autotrophs.
 For example in the ocean depths, where there is no sunlight,
chemoautotrophic sulphur bacteria make use of the heat generated
by the decay of radioactive elements present in the earths core and
released in oceans depths. They use this heat to convert
dissolved hydrogen sulphide (H2S) and carbon dioxide (CO2)
into organic compounds.
(b) Consumers: All organisms which get their organic food
by feeding upon other organisms are called consumers,
which are of the following types:
(i) Herbivores (plant eaters):
 They feed directly on producers and hence also known
as primary consumers. e.g. rabbit, insect, man.
(ii) Carnivores (meat eaters):
 They feed on other consumers.
 If they feed on herbivores they are called secondary
consumers (e.g. frog) and if they feed on other carnivores
(snake, big fish etc.) they are known as tertiary
carnivores/consumers.
(iii) Omnivores: They feed on both plants and animals. e.g.
humans, rat, fox, many birds.
(iv) Detritivores (Detritus feeders or Saprotrophs):
 They feed on the parts of dead organisms, wastes of living
organisms and partially decomposed matter e.g. beetles,
termites, ants, crabs, earthworms etc.
(c) Decomposers:
 They derive their nutrition by breaking down the complex
organic molecules to simpler organic compounds and
ultimately into inorganic nutrients.
 Various bacteria and fungi are decomposers.
(II) Abiotic Structure:
 The physical and chemical components of an ecosystem
constitute its abiotic structure.
 It includes climatic factors, edaphic (soil) factors,
geographical factors, energy and nutrients.
(a) Physical factors:
 The sunlight and shade, intensity of solar flux, duration of
sun hours, average temperature, maximum-minimum
temperature, annual rainfall, wind, latitude and altitude,
soil type, water availability, water currents etc. are some of
the important physical features which have a strong
influence on the ecosystem.
(b) Chemical factors:
 Availability of major essential nutrients like carbon,
nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, hydrogen, oxygen and
sulphur and various organic substances present in the soil or
water largely influence the functioning of the ecosystem.
 All the biotic components of an ecosystem are influenced
by the abiotic components and vice versa, and they are
linked together through energy flow and matter cycling.
Function of Ecosystem:
 Every ecosystem performs under natural conditions in a
systematic way.
 It receives energy from the sun and passes it on through
various biotic components and in fact, all life depends upon
this flow of energy.
 The major functional attributes of an ecosystems are as
follows:
(i) Food chain, food webs, trophic structure, ecological
succession (Biological)
(ii) Energy flow (Physical)
(iii) Cycling of nutrients (Biogeochemical)
(iv) Primary and Secondary production
(v) Ecosystem development and regulation
Trophic structure:
 The producers and consumers are arranged in the ecosystem
in a definite manner and their interaction along with
population size are expressed together as trophic structure.
Each food level is known as trophic level.
 The amount of living matter at each trophic level at a given
time is known as standing crop or standing biomass.
Food chain:
 The sequence of eating and being eaten in an ecosystem is
known as food chain.
 A caterpillar eats a plant leaf, a sparrow eats the caterpillar, a
cat or a hawk eats the sparrow and when they all die, they are
all consumed by microorganisms like bacteria or fungi
(decomposers) which break down the organic matter and
convert it into simple inorganic substances that can again be
 Each organism in the ecosystem is assigned a feeding
level or trophic level depending on its nutritional status.
Thus, in the grassland food chain, grasshopper occupies the
Ist trophic level, frog the IInd and snake and hawk occupy
the IIIrd and the IVth trophic levels, respectively.
 The decomposers consume the dead matter of all these
trophic levels.
 In nature, we come across two major types of food chains:
(I) Grazing food chain:
 It starts with green plants (primary producers) and ends in
carnivores.
Fig. Grazing food chain
(II) Detritus food chain:
 It starts with dead organic matter which the detritivores
and decomposers consume.
 Partially decomposed dead organic matter and even the
decomposers are consumed by detritivores and their
predators.
 An example of the detritus food chain is seen in a
Mangrove (estuary).

Fig. Detritus food chain

Fig. Detritus food chain
 Thus the grazing food chain derives its energy basically
from plant energy while in the detritus food chain it is
obtained primarily from plant biomass, secondarily from
microbial biomass and tertiarily from carnivores.
 Both the food chains occur together in natural ecosystems,
but grazing food chain usually predominates.
Food web
 Food web is a network of food chains where different types
of organisms are connected at different trophic levels, so
that there are a number of options of eating and being eaten
at each trophic level.
Fig. Food web
 In a tropical region, the ecosystems are much more
complex. They have a rich species diversity and therefore,
the food webs are much more complex.
 Why nature has evolved food webs in ecosystems instead
of simple linear food chains? This is because food webs
give greater stability to the ecosystem.
 In a linear food chain, if one species becomes extinct or one
species suffers then the species in the subsequent trophic
levels are also affected.
 In a food web, on the other hand, there are a number of
options available at each trophic level. So if one species is
affected, it does not affect other trophic levels so seriously.
Significance of food chains and food webs:
 Food chains and food webs play a very significant role in
the ecosystem because the two most important functions
of energy flow and nutrient cycling take place through
them.
 The food chains also help in maintaining and regulating
the population size of different animals and thus, help
maintain the ecological balance.
 Food chains show a unique property of biological
magnification of some chemicals. There are several
pesticides, heavy metals and other chemicals which are non-
biodegradable in nature. Such chemicals are not decomposed
by microorgan- isms and they keep on passing from one
trophic level to an-other. And, at each successive trophic level,
they keep on in-creasing in concentration. This
Ecological pyramid
 Graphic representation of trophic structure and function of
an ecosystem, starting with producers at the base and
successive trophic levels forming the apex is knows as an
ecological pyramid.
Ecological pyramids are of three types:
 Pyramid of numbers: It represents the number of
individual organisms at each trophic level.
 It may have upright or inverted pyramid of numbers,
depending upon the type of ecosystem and food chain.
 A grassland ecosystem and a pond ecosystem show an
upright pyramid of numbers.
Fig. Pyramid of Number of Grassland Ecosystem
 The producers in the grasslands are grasses and that in a
pond are phytoplanktons (algae etc.), which are small in
size and very large in number. So the producers form a
broad base. The herbivores in a grassland are insects
while tertiary carnivores are hawks or other birds which
are gradually less and less in number and hence the
pyramid apex becomes gradually narrower forming an
upright pyramid.
 Similar is the case with the herbivores, carnivores and
top carnivores in pond which decrease in number at
higher trophic levels.
 Parasitic food chain shows an inverted pyramid of number.

Fig. Pyramid of Number of Parasitic food chain

 The producers like a few big trees harbour fruit eating birds
acting like herbivores which are larger in number. A much
higher number of lice, bugs etc. grow as parasites on these
birds while a still greater number of hyperparasites like
bugs, fleas and microbes feed upon them, thus making an
inverted pyramid
Pyramid of biomass

 It is based upon the total biomass (dry matter) at each

trophic level in a food chain.
 The pyramid of biomass can also be upright or inverted.
 The pyramid of biomass in a forest is upright in contrast to
its pyramid of numbers. This is because the producers
(trees) accumulate a huge biomass while the consumers
total biomass feeding on them declines at higher trophic
levels, resulting. in broad base and narrowing top.
 The pond ecosystem shows an inverted pyramid of biomass. The total
biomass of producers (phytoplanktons) is much less as compared to
herbivores (zooplanktons, insects), Carnivores (Small fish) and tertiary
carnivores (big fish). Thus the pyramid takes an inverted shape with
narrow base and broad apex.
 Pyramid of Energy: The amount of energy present at each
trophic level is considered for this type of pyramid.
 Pyramid of energy is always upright.
 At every successive trophic level, there is a huge loss of
energy (about 90%) in the form of heat, respiration etc.
Thus, at each next higher level only 10% of the energy
passes on.
Energy flow in the ecosystem
 Flow of energy in an ecosystem takes place through the
food chain.
 Flow of energy in the ecostystem is unidirectional.
 Flow of energy follows two law of thermodynamics.
 Ist law of Thermodynamics: It states that energy can
neither be created nor be destroyed but it can be
transformed from one form to another.
 The solar energy captured by the green plants (producers)
gets converted into biochemical energy of plants and
later into that of consumers.
 IInd law of Thermodynamics: It states that energy
dissipates as it is used. As energy flows through the food
chain, there occurs dissipation of energy at every trophic
level.
 The loss of energy takes place through respiration, loss of
energy in locomotion, running, hunting and other activities.
 At every level there is about 90% loss of energy and the
energy transferred from one trophic level to the other is only
about 10%.
Concept of productivity:
Primary production
 Primary productivity of an ecosystem is defined as the rate
at which radiant energy is converted into organic substances
by photosynthesis or chemo-synthesis by the primary
producers.
 When organic matter is produced by the primary producers
(mainly green plants and some microorganisms), some of it
is oxidized or burnt inside their body and converted into
carbon-dioxide which is released during respiration and is
accompanied by loss of energy.
 Respiratory loss of energy is a must, because it is required
for the maintenance of the organism. Now, the producers are
left with a little less organic matter than what was actually
produced by them. This is known as the net primary
production (NPP) and the respiratory loss (R) added to it
gives the gross primary production (GPP).

NPP = GPP - R.
Secondary production
 The food synthesized by green plants through
photosynthesis is the primary production which is eaten by
herbivores. The plant energy is used up for producing
organic matter of the herbivores which, in turn, is used up
by the carnivores. The amount of organic matter stored by
the herbivores or carnivores (in excess of respiratory loss) is
known as secondary production.

 The energy stored at consumer level for use by the next

trophic level is thus defined as secondary production.
Ecological succession:
 An ecosystem is not static in nature. It is dynamic
and changes its structure as well as function with time.
 It is observed that one type of a community is totally
replaced by another type of community over a period of
time and simultaneously several changes also occur. This
process is known as ecological succession.
 The whole sequence of communities which are transitory
are known as Seral stages or seres whereas the community
establishing first of all in the area is called a pioneer
community last stable community is known as climax
community.
 Ecological successions starting on different types of
areas or substrata are named differently as follows:
(i) Hydrarch or Hydrosere: Starting in watery area like pond,
swamp.
(ii) Mesarch: starting in an area of adequate moisture.
(iii) Xerarch or Xerosere: Starting in a dry area with little
moisture.
Process of Succession
 The process of succession takes place in a systematic order
of sequential steps as follows:
(i) Nudation: It is the development of a bare area without any
life form.
 The bare area may be caused due to landslides, volcanic
eruption etc. (topographic factor), or due to drought, glaciers,
frost etc. (Climatic factor), or due to overgrazing, disease
outbreak, agricultural/industrial activities (biotic factors).
(ii) Invasion: It is the successful establishment of one or more
species on a bare area through dispersal or migration,
followed by establishment.
(iii) Competition: As the number of individuals grows there
is competition, both inter-specific (between different
species) and intra-specific (within the same species), for
space, water and nutrition.
(iv) Reaction: The living organisms grow, use water and
nutrients from the substratum, and in turn, they have a
strong influence on the environment which is modified to a
large extent and this is known as reaction.
(v) Stabilization: The succession ultimately culminates in a
more or less stable community called climax which is in
equilibrium with the environment. The climax community is
characterized by maximum biomass
Let us consider very briefly two types of succession
A. Hydrosere (Hydrarch): This type of succession starts in a
water body like pond.
 A number of intermediate stages come and ultimately it
culminates in a climax community which is a forest.
 The pioneer community consists of phytoplanktons, which
are free floating algae, diatoms etc. Gradually these are
replaced by rooted submerged plants followed by rooted-
floating plants.
 Growth of these plants keep on adding organic matter to the
substratum by death and decay and thus a layer of soil builds
up and shallowing of water takes place.
 Then Reed swamp (marshy) stage follows in which the plants
are partly in water and partly on land. This is followed by a
sedgemeadow stage of grasses then by a woodland consisting
B. Xerosere (Xerarch): This type of succession originates on
a bare rock, which lacks water and organic matter.
Interestingly, here also the climax community is a forest.
 The pioneer community here consists of crustose and
foliose lichens. These lichens produce some weak acids and
help in disintegrating the rock, a process known as
weathering. Their growth helps in building up gradually
some organic matter, humus and soil.
 Then comes the community of mosses, followed by herbs,
shrubs and finally the forest trees.
Biogeochemical (nutrient cycling) processes:

 Nutrients like carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, oxygen, hydrogen,

phosphorus etc. move in circular paths through biotic and
abiotic components and are therefore known as
biogeochemical cycles.
 The nutrients too move through the food chain and
ultimately reach the detritus compartment (containing dead
organic matter) where various micro-organisms carry out
decomposition.
The Nitrogen cycle

 The major components of the atmosphere are nitrogen (78%).

 Nitrogen in the atmosphere cannot be directly used as a nutrient by
the plant and animal.
 Plant use nitrogen in the form of nitrate (NO3-).
 Nitrogen fixation is the process of converting free nitrogen in the
atmosphere into nitrogen molecules. So that plants can absorb and
use it.
 Lightning can also fix nitrogen. The high temperature of a lightning
can break the bonds of atmospheric nitrogen molecules. Free
nitrogen atoms in the air bond with oxygen in the air to create
nitrogen oxides, which dissolve in moisture to form nitrates that are
carried to Earth's surface by precipitation and used by plant.
 Nitrogen cycle contains various steps such as ammonification,
nitrification, nitrogen fixation and denitrification.
 Ammonification is the process where microscopic organisms
like bacteria or other types of decomposing organisms, break
down nitrogen-containing chemicals from dead organic matter,
into simple substances like ammonia.
 Bacillus ramosus are ammonifying bacteria.
 Nitrification is the process that converts ammonia to nitrite and
then to nitrate.
 Nitrification processes has been carried out by several bacteria
such as Nitrosomonas, Nitrosococcus and Nitrobacter etc.
 Free-living bacteria such as Azotobacter, Clostridium, Nostoc,
and Anabaena can fix nitrogen in the atmosphere.
 Root nodules of Leguminous plant such as beans, peas, lentils
etc. contains various symbiotic bacteria such as Rhizobium
leguminosarum etc. which fixes atmospheric nitrogen into
leguminous plant.
 Finally the denitrification steps completes the nitrogen cycle
as nitrogen leaves the soil and released into the atmosphere
as nitrogen or nitrous oxide gas.
 Micrococcus denitrificans, Thiobacillus denitrificans etc.
are examples of denitrifying bacteria.
 Nitrates are the part of plant metabolism, which help
informing new plant proteins. This is used by animals that
feed on plants.
 The nitrogen is then transferred to the carnivorous when
they feed on herbivorous.
The Carbon cycle
 The carbon, which occurs in organic compounds, is
included in both the abiotic and biotic parts of the
ecosystem.
 Carbon is a building block of both plant and animal
tissues.
 In the presence of sunlight, plants take up carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere through their leaves. The plants
combine carbon dioxide with water, which is absorbed by
their roots from the soil. In the presence of sunlight they
are able to form carbohydrates that contain carbon. This
process is known as photosynthesis.
 Both plants and animals release carbon dioxide during
respiration.
 They also return fixed carbon to the soil in the waste they
excrete.
 When plants and animals die they return their carbon to
the soil. These processes complete the carbon cycle.
Oxygen cycle

 The air in the atmosphere is composed of different gases,

namely nitrogen (78%), oxygen (21%), argon and other trace
gases (1%).
 According to the earth’s history, oxygen gas was first introduced
by cyanobacteria through the process of photosynthesis. Earlier,
around 4.6 billion years ago, there was no life on planet earth
because the atmosphere was devoid of oxygen. Later, there was
a gradual increase in the oxygen levels in the atmosphere.
 Today, oxygen is freely available in the air and also dissolved in
water. It is the second most abundant gas present in
the atmosphere.
 All green plants during the process of photosynthesis, release
oxygen back into the atmosphere as a by-product.
 All aerobic organisms use oxygen for respiration.
 Animals exhale Carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere
which is again used by the plants during photosynthesis.
Now oxygen is balanced within the atmosphere.
Types of Ecosystems:
Forest Ecosystem:
 According to Forest Survey report 2021, the total forest and tree cover
in India is 80.9 million hectares, which is 24.62% of the geographical
area of the country. It is less as compared to the recommended 33% by
National Forest Policy (1988).
 Area-wise Madhya Pradesh has the largest forest cover in the country
followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Maharashtra.
 In terms of forest cover as percentage of total geographical area, the top
five States are Mizoram (84.53%), Arunachal Pradesh (79.33%),
Meghalaya (76.00%), Manipur (74.34%) and Nagaland (73.90%).
 17 states/UT’s have above 33 percent of the geographical area under
forest cover. Out of these states and UT’s, five states/UTs namely
Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Arunachal
Pradesh and Meghalaya have more than 75 percent forest cover while
12 states/UTs namely Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Goa, Kerala,
Sikkim, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman
& Diu, Assam, Odisha, have forest cover between 33 percent to 75
 Depending upon the prevailing climatic conditions
forests can be of various types:
(a) Tropical Rain Forests:
 They are evergreen broadleaf forests found near the
equator. They are characterized by high temperature,
high humidity and high rainfall, all of which favour the
growth of trees.
 These forest have the richest biodiversity.
 The understorey trees usually receive very dim sunlight.
They usually develop dark green leaves with high
chlorophyll content so that they can use the diffused
sunlight for photosynthesis.
 The shrub layer receives even less sunlight and the
ground layer commonly known as forest floor receives
 Warm temperature and high availability of moisture
facilitate rapid breakdown (decomposition) of the dropped
leaves, twigs etc. releasing the nutrients rapidly. These
nutrients are immediately taken up by the mycorrhizal
roots of the trees.

 The Silent Valley in Kerala is the tropical rain forest lying

in India which is the natural habitat for a wide variety of
species.
Fig. Tropical Rain Forest
(b) Tropical deciduous forests: They are found a
little away from the equator and are characterized by
a warm climate the year round.
 Rain occurs only during monsoon. A large part of
the year remains dry and therefore different types of
deciduous trees are found here, which lose their
leaves during dry season.
Fig. Tropical deciduous forests
(c) Tropical scrub forests:
 They are found in areas where the dry season is even
longer. Here there are small deciduous trees and shrubs.
(d) Temperate rain forests:
 They are found in temperate areas with adequate rainfall.
These are dominated by coniferous trees like pines, firs,
redwoods etc.
(e) Temperate deciduous forests:
 They are found in areas with moderate temperatures.
 There is a marked seasonality with long summers, cold but
not too severe winter and abundant rainfall throughout the
year.
 The major trees include broad leaf deciduous trees like oak,
hickory, poplar etc.
(f) Evergreen coniferous forests (Boreal Forests): They are
found just south of arctic tundra.
 Here winters are long, cold and dry. Sunlight is available for
a few hours only. In summer the temperature is mild.
 The major trees include pines, spruce, fir, cedar etc. which
have tiny, needle-shaped leaves having a waxy coating so
that they can withstand severe cold and drought.
 Species diversity is rather low in these forests.
Fig. Evergreen coniferous forests
Grassland Ecosystem
 Grasslands are dominated by grass species but
sometimes also allow the growth of a few trees and
shrubs. Rainfall is average.
 Three types of grasslands are found to occur in
different climatic regions:
(a)Tropical grasslands:
 They occur near the borders of tropical rain
forests in regions of high average temperature
and low to moderate rainfall. In Africa, these are
typically known as Savannas, which have tall
grasses with scattered shrubs and stunted trees.
 Tropical savannas have a highly efficient system of
photosynthesis. Most of the carbon assimilated by them in
the form of carbohydrates.
(b) Temperate grasslands:
 They are usually found on flat, gentle sloped hills, winters
are very cold but summers are hot and dry.
 In United States and Canada these grasslands are
known as prairies, in South America as Pampas, in Africa
as Velds and in central Europe and Asia they are known as
Steppes.
(c) Polar grasslands (Arctic Tundra):
 They are found in arctic polar region where severe cold
and strong, frigid winds along with ice and snow create too
harsh a climate for trees to grow.
 The animals include arctic wolf, arctic fox, reindeer etc.
 A thick layer of ice remains frozen under the soil surface
throughout the year and is known as permafrost.
Desert Ecosystem
 These ecosystems occur in regions where evaporation
exceeds precipitation (rainfall, snow etc.).
 The precipitation is less than 25 cm per year.
 About 1/3rd of our worlds land area is covered by deserts.
 Deserts have little species diversity and consist of drought
resistant or drought avoiding plants.
Deserts are of three major types, based on climatic
conditions:
(a) Tropical deserts like Sahara in Africa and Thar desert,
Rajasthan, India are the driest of all with only a few species.
 Wind blown sand dunes are very common.
(b) Temperate deserts like Mojave in Southern California where
day time temperatures are very hot in summer but cool in
winters.
(c) Cold deserts like the Gobi desert in China has cold winters
and warm summers.
 Desert plants and animals are having most typical adaptations
for conservation of water. Many desert plants are found to
have reduced, scaly leaves so as to cut down loss of water
due to transpiration or have succulent leaves to store water.
Aquatic Ecosystem
 Aquatic ecosystems dealing with water bodies and the
biotic communities present in them are either freshwater
or marine.
 Freshwater ecosystems are further of standing type (lentic)
like ponds and lakes or free-flowing type (lotic), like rivers.
(a) Lake ecosystems:
 Lakes are usually big freshwater bodies with standing
water.
 They have a shallow water zone called Littoral zone, an
open-water zone where effective penetration of solar light
takes place, called Limnetic zone and a deep bottom area
where light penetration is negligible, known as profundal
zone.
 The Dal Lake in Srinagar (J & K), Naini Lake in Nainital
(Uttaranchal), Chandratal Lake (Himachal Pradesh) and
Loktak lake in Manipur are some of the famous lakes of our
country.
Organisms :
The lakes have several types of organisms:
(a) Planktons that float on the surface of waters e.g.
phytoplanktons like algae and zooplanktons.
(b) Nektons that swim e.g. fishes.
(c) Neustons that rest or swim on the surface.
(d) Benthos that are attached to bottom sediments e.g. snails.
(e) Periphytons that are attached to other plants or any other
surface e.g. crustaceans.
Stratification :
 The lakes show stratification or zonation based on
temperature differences.
 During summer, the top waters become warmer than the
bottom waters. Therefore, only the warm top layer circulates
without mixing with the colder layer, thus forming a distinct
zonation:
 Epilimnion: Warm, lighter, circulating surface layer
 Hypolimnion : Cold, viscous, non-circulating bottom layer.
 In between the two layers is thermocline, the region of
sharp drop in temperature.
Types of Lakes :
Some important types of lakes are:
(a) Oligotrophic lakes: Which have low nutrient
concentrations.
(b) Eutrophic lakes: Which are over-nourished by nutrients
like nitrogen and phosphorus, usually as a result of
agricultural run-off or municipal sewage discharge.
 They are covered with .algal blooms. e.g. Dal Lake.
(c) Dystrophic lakes: That have low pH, high humic acid
content and brown waters e.g. bog lakes.
(d) Desert salt lakes: That occur in arid regions and have
developed high salt concentrations as a result of high
evaporation. e.g. Sambhar lake in Rajasthan.
(e) Artificial lakes: That are created due to construction of
Fig. Dal Lake
Fig. Sambhar lake
Fig. Govindsagar lake
Tundra:
 The Tundra is the coldest of the biomes ( contains extremely
low temperatures).
 Tundra ecosystems are treeless regions found in the Arctic and
on the tops of mountains, where the climate is cold and windy,
and rainfall is scant. Tundra lands are covered with snow for
much of the year.
 It also receives low amounts of precipitation, making the tundra
similar to a desert.
 Three types of tundra exist: Antarctic, Alpine, and Arctic. The
main difference between these types of tundra is their location on
the earth.
 Some notable regions with a large amount of Alpine tundra are:
The Himalayas, The Tibetan Plateau in Asia, The Alps etc.
 The tundra has few nutrients to support plant and animal life.
 For most of the year, the tundra biome is a cold,
frozen landscape. This biome has a short growing
season, followed by harsh conditions that the plants
and animals in the region need special adaptations to
survive.
 Animals found in the tundra include the polar bear,
the Arctic fox, Reindeer etc.
 Tundra regions have extreme cold conditions and
hence, vegetation such as lichens and mosses have
adapted to grow by performing photosynthesis with
the little sunlight that they receive.
Oceans:
 These are huge reservoirs of water covering more than 70%
of our earths surface and play a key role in the survival of
about 2,50,000 marine species.
 Ocean contains around 97% of total water present on the
earth.
 Oceans are the major sinks of carbon dioxide and play an
important role in regulating many biogeochemical cycles
and hydrological cycle, thereby regulating the earths
climate.
 The oceans have two major life zones.
 Coastal zone: It is relatively warm, nutrient rich shallow
water.
 Due to high nutrients and high sunlight this is the zone of
high primary productivity.
Open sea:
 It is the deeper part of the ocean, away from the continental
shelf (The submerged part of the continent).
 It is vertically divided into three regions:
(i) Euphotic zone: Which receives abundant light and shows
high photosynthetic activity.
(ii) Bathyal zone: It receives dim light and is usually
geologically active.
(iii) Abyssal zone: It is the dark zone, 2000 to 5000 metres
deep.
 The abyssal zone has no primary source of energy i.e. solar
energy.
The Pond ecosystem
 The pond is the simplest aquatic ecosystem to observe.
 Most ponds become dry after the rains are over and are
covered by terrestrial plants for the rest of the year.
 When a pond begins to fill during the rains, its life forms
such as the algae and microscopic animals, aquatic insects,
snails, and worms come out of the floor of the pond where
they have remained dormant in the dry phase.
 Gradually more complex animals such as crabs frogs and
fish return to the pond. The vegetation in the water consists
of floating weeds and rooted vegetation on the periphery
which grow on the muddy floor under water and emerge out
of the surface of the water.
Streams
 These are freshwater aquatic ecosystems where water
current is a major controlling factor of oxygen and nutrient.
 Although stream organisms have to face more extremes of
temperature and action of currents as compared to pond or
lake organisms, but they do not have to face oxygen
deficiency under natural conditions. This is because the
streams are shallow, have a large surface exposed to air and
constant motion which churns the water and provides
abundant oxygen.
 Dissolved oxygen level is higher than that of ponds even
though the green plants are much less in number.
 The stream animals usually have a narrow range of
tolerance to oxygen. That is the reason why they are very
susceptible to any organic pollution which depletes
dissolved oxygen in the water. Thus, streams are the worst
victims of industrial development.
River Ecosystem:
 Rivers are large streams that flow downward from
mountain highlands and flowing through the plains fall into
the sea. So the river ecosystems show a series of different
conditions.
(1) The mountain highland part
 This region is cold, clear waters rushing down as water
falls with large amounts of dissolved oxygen.
 The plants are attached to rocks (periphytons) and fishes
lives in cold-water, high oxygen requiring fish like trouts.

(2) In the second phase on the gentle slopes, the waters are
warmer and support a luxuriant growth of plants and less
oxygen requiring fishes.

(3) In the third phase, the river waters are very rich in biotic
diversity. Moving down the hills, rivers shape the land.
They bring with them lots of silt rich in nutrients which is
deposited in the plains and in the delta before reaching the
ocean.
Fig. Ganga at Narora
Fig. Ganga at Prayagraj
Fig. Ganga at Varanasi
Estuaries:
 An estuary is a partially enclosed, coastal water body
where freshwater from rivers and streams mixes with salt
water from the ocean.
 Estuaries, and their surrounding lands, are places of
transition from land to sea.
 In estuaries, the salty ocean mixes with a freshwater river,
resulting in brackish water. Brackish water is somewhat
salty, but not as salty as the ocean.
 The Hooghly-Matlah estuarine system located in West
Bengal is the largest among the estuaries on the Indian coast
covering the Gangetic delta called Sundarbans which is the
world's largest delta endowed with largest mangrove
vegetation in India.
 The dominant plant groups in estuaries are seagrass,
mangroves, saltmarsh, macroalgae and microalgae etc.
 Plants that live in estuaries tolerate remarkable
environmental stresses, such as changes in water levels or
tides, rainfall, currents and salinity etc.
 Shellfish, salmon fish, oysters, shrimp, crabs, snails, turtle
and marine worms are very common in estuaries.
Ecosystem services
 An ecosystem service is any positive benefit that wildlife or
ecosystems provide to people.
 Life and biodiversity on earth depend on these services.
Ecosystem services are classified into four types:
(1) Provisioning Services
 This includes the products/raw materials or energy outputs
like food, water, medicines and other resources from
ecosystems. Ecosystems are a source of food, water,
medicines, wood, biofuels, etc.
(2) Regulating Services
 This includes the services which regulate the ecological
balance. For example, terrestrial environs like forest purify
and regulates air quality, prevent soil erosion, and control
greenhouse gases. Biotic components such as birds, rats,
frogs, act as natural controllers and thus help in pest and
disease control. Hence, ecosystems act as regulators.
(3) Supporting services
 Supporting services form the basis for other services. They
provide habitat for different life forms, retain biodiversity,
nutrient cycling, and other services for supporting life on
the earth.
(4) Cultural services
 It includes tourism; provides recreational, cultural and
spiritual services, etc.
 Most natural elements such as landscapes, mountains,
caves, are used as a place for cultural purposes.
 Moreover, ecosystems provide enormous economic benefits
in the name of tourism.
Ecosystem preservation and conservation strategies
 We have examined human activities that can have adverse
effects on the environment. However, this does not mean that
human activities always have a negative impact on the
environment.
 In managing development, measures of conservation,
preservation and restoration of ecosystems need to be taken to
ensure sustainable development.
Preservation of ecosystems:
 Ecosystem preservation is an effort to protect the components
in an ecosystem in order to maintain its natural state.
 One of the conservation measures is to gazette the forest
reserve to maintain the natural beauty of its flora and fauna.
 The forest reserve is protected from any development
activities.
Conservation of ecosystems:
 Ecosystem conservation means the effort to restore
environmental resources such as water, forests, energy, air,
minerals and others that have been used without letting
those resources become extinct.
 Conservation strategies are carried out to ensure that the
endangered ecosystem components can be saved.
 There are two types of conservation strategies, namely in
situ conservation and ex situ conservation.
 In situ conservation maintains wildlife species in their
original habitats (natural habitat) such as national parks and
wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve etc.
 Ex-situ conservation preserves wildlife species outside of
their original/natural habitats such as zoos and botanical
gardens.
Restoration of ecosystems:
 Ecosystem restoration means efforts to renew and restore
natural ecosystems that have been degraded, damaged or
destroyed by human activities.
 Reforestation and the planting of land cover crops are
among the remedial measures that can be taken to ensure
the continuity of natural resources for future generations.