ECOSYSTEM

ECOLOGY

• Ecology is the study of the relationships among

living organisms, including humans, and their
physical environment.
• Ecology considers organisms at the individual,
population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere
level.
• Ecosystems vary in size: some are small enough to
be contained within single water droplets while
others are large enough to encompass entire
landscapes and regions
ECOSYSTEM
 An ecosystem is a structural and functional unit of
ecology where the living organisms interact with
each other and the surrounding environment.

 Ecosystems sustain life-supporting functions and

provide ecosystem services like biomass production
, the regulation of climate, global biogeochemical
cycles, water filtration, soil formation etc

 An ecosystem can be categorized into its abiotic

constituents, and its biotic constituents.
 TYPES OF ECOSYSTEM
An ecosystem can be as small as an oasis in a desert, or as big as an ocean,
spanning thousands of miles.
STRUCTURE (OR) COMPONENT OF
ECOSYSTEM
o The organization of both biotic and abiotic components.
o The amount and distribution of nutrients in a particular habitat
and range of climatic conditions prevailing in the area .
From the structure point of view, all ecosystems consist of the
following basic components:
1. Abiotic components
2. Biotic components
1. Abiotic Components:
• Includes basic inorganic elements and compounds - soil, water,
oxygen, phosphates and a variety of organic compounds .
• Also includes physical factors as moisture, wind currents and solar
radiation. Radiant energy of sun is the only significant energy
source for any ecosystem.
• The amount of non-living components, such as carbon, phosphorus,
nitrogen, etc. that are present at any given time is known as
standing state or standing quantity.
2. Biotic Components:
The biotic components include all living organisms present
in the environmental system.
From nutrition point of view, the biotic components
can be grouped into two basic components:
• Autotrophic components -include all green plants which
fix the radiant energy of sun and manufacture food from
inorganic substances.
• Heterotrophic components include non-green plants
and all animals which take food from autotrophs.
So biotic components of an ecosystem can be
described under the following three heads:
1. Producers (Autotrophic components),
2. Consumers, and
3. Decomposers or reducers and transformers
PRODUCER :
• Producers are also known as Autotrophs (do not depend on other
organisms).
• The producers are again subdivided into two groups.

1. Photoautotrophs:
Photoautotrophs make their own food from the sunlight.
A pigment called chlorophyll present in the leaves of the plant
captures photons from the sun and generates energy.
This energy is used to form sugars, lipids, protein, etc., for their
consumption.
Examples: Green plants, Trees, Green algae, Bacteria.

2. Chemoautotrophs :
These are found rarely in the ecosystem. They generate energy
from the chemicals in the atmosphere.
For example- methanogens are the microorganisms that
produce Methane-one of the most harmful greenhouse gas.
Consumers :
 Those living members of ecosystem which consume the food
synthesized by producers are called consumers and also known as
Heterotrophs. Autotrophs are their main source of energy.

There are different classes or categories of consumers, such as:

1. Consumers of the first order or primary consumers:-
Insects, rodents, rabbit, deer, cow, buffalo, goat are some of the common
herbivores in the terrestrial ecosystem, and small crustaceans, molluscs, etc.
in the aquatic habitat.
2. Consumers of the second order or secondary consumers:-
Crow, fox, wolves, dogs, cats, snakes, etc.
3. Consumers of the third order or tertiary consumers:-
Lions, tigers, hawk, vulture, etc. are considered as tertiary or top consumers.

Decomposers :
 These are also known as detritivores.
 The waste and rotten materials of the dead organisms are
completely eaten by the decomposers. They turn it into metabolic
food and detritivores gain more energy.
 Ecosystem functions are natural processes or energy
Ecosystem’s Functions:

exchanges that take place in various plant and animal

groupings across the globe’s biomes.
 Decomposers are responsible for converting complex
organic resources into simple inorganic chemicals that
producers can use.
 The transfer of energy and nutrients in the food chain is the
essence of ecosystem operations.
 These interactions ensure the survival of plant and animal
life on Earth, as well as organic matter decomposition and
biomass formation.

The following broad categories can be used to

study ecological functions:
 Energy Flow
 Nutrient cycling
 Ecological succession or ecosystem development
CONCEPT OF ENERGY
IN ECOSYSTEM

o Energy is transferred between

organisms in food webs from
producers to consumers
o The vast majority of energy
that exists in food webs
originates from the sun and is
converted into chemical
energy by the process of
photosynthesis in plants.
o Of the total incident solar
radiation less than 60% of it is
photosynthetically active
radiation (PAR).
LAWS GOVERNING ENERGY
TRANSFORMATION IN ECOSYSTEM:

• The first law of thermodynamics, which states that

energy may be transformed from one form to
another but it can neither be created nor be
destroyed.
• The Second law of thermodynamics which states
that processes involving energy transformation
does not occur spontaneously unless there is
degradation of energy from a non-random to a
random form.

INTERCONNECTION AMONG
ORGANISMS:
• All the organisms in an ecosystem are connected in
a very intricate manner and the energy flow occurs
through these interconnections.
• These interconnections can be depicted by food
chains to understand the basic connection between
organisms.
Food Chain:-
A food chain is linear network of links in a food web starting
from producer organisms and ending at an apex predator
species , detritivores or decomposer species.
Food Web:
A Food Web consists of all the food chains in a single ecosystem. Each living
thing in an ecosystem is a part of multiple food chains . Each food chain is one
possible path that energy and nutrients may take as they move through the
ecosystem.
ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION:
The observed process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over a
period of time
■ Ecosystems are constantly changing. Ecological succession is a gradual process of
change and replacement of the types of species in a community.
■ Each new community makes it harder for the previous community to survive.
Types of Ecological Succession:
 Primary Succession:
Primary Succession It is the process of creating life in an
area where no life existed earlier.
■ Begins in a place without any soil, like: Sides of
volcanoes, Landslides, Flooding
■ Living things such as lichens that do not need any soil to
survive are known as Pioneer Species
■ When these lichens die, they decompose, adding small
amounts of organic matter to the rock to make soil.

 Secondary Succession:
Secondary Succession is the process of re-stabilization that
follows a disturbance in an area, where life has formed an
ecosystem.
■ Secondary Succession occurs on a surface where an
ecosystem has previously existed.
■ When an existing community has been cleared by any
type of disturbance, such as fire, cyclone etc. and the soil
remains intact, the area begins to return to its natural
community.
Ecological Pyramid:-
An ecological pyramid is a graphical representation of the relationship between the different
living organisms at different trophic levels. Charles Elton developed the concept of the
pyramid of numbers. Later, G. Evylen Hutchinson and Raymond Lindeman developed the idea
of the pyramid of energy or productivity.
 Types of Ecological Pyramid:
• The major contributing factors in the famine were
the policies, launched by the chairman of chinese
communist party “Mao zedong ”.

• some of the policies were:

 Inefficient distribution of food within the nation's

economy and poor agricultural techniques

 Ordering farmers to switch to iron and steel

production, over-reporting of grains And the
biggest considered reason was

 The four pests campaign that reduced sparrow

populations which "disrupted the the ecosystem"
• Over 50 million people died due to
starvation in china, the number is more than
any other famine in human history!!

• The president of china formally attributed

30% of the famine to natural disasters and
70% to man made errors

• After the launch and opening up, the

chinese communist party (CPP), in june 1981
stated that famine was mainly due to
mistakes of the policies called "great leap
forward"

• During great leap forwars Farmers worked in

the fields all day and sometimes into the
night, a practice known as “catching the
moon and stars,”

• Frank Dikötter describes China’s starving

millions as the “unintended consequences of
half-baked and poorly executed
economic programmes”.
THANKY
OU