ECOSYSTEM

CONCEPT
• Everything in the natural world is
connected.
• Plants and animals depend on each other
to survive. This connection of living things
to each other is called biodiversity.
• These plants and animals within an area
interact with each other and with the non-
living elements of the area, such as
climate, water, soil and so on.
• An ecosystem, short for 'ecological
system', is a community of living and non-
living things that work together.
• An ecosystem is a community of living
organisms (plants, animals and microbes)
in conjunction with the nonliving
components of their environment (things
like air, water and mineral soil), interacting
as a system.
ECOSYSTEM DEFINED
• An ecosystem is a community of plants,
animals and smaller organisms that live, feed,
reproduce and interact in the same area
or environment.
• An ecosystem is a community of living and
nonliving things considered as a unit.
• Ecosystem is a complex set of relationships
among the living resources, habitats and
residents of an area. It includes plants, trees,
animals, fishes, birds, micro-organisms, air,
water, soil and people.
 ECOSYSTEM DEFINED
• An ecosystem is a self regulating group of
biotic communities of species interacting with
one another and with their non-living
environment exchanging energy and matter.
• Ecosystems are dynamic interactions
between plants, animals, and microorganisms
and their environment working together as a
functional unit. Ecosystems will fail if they
do not remain in balance.
 ECOLOGY
• Term Coined by Earnst Haeckel in 1869.
• Derived from greek words: OIKOS(Home)
+LOGOS(Study)
• So, Ecology is the study of organisms in their
natural home interacting with their
surroundings.
• Ecology is the scientific study of the
relationships that living organisms have with
each other and with their natural environment.
• Ecology is the study of ecosystems.
 FUNCTIONS OF
ECOSYSTEM
• Habitat functions: ecosystems provide
habitat to wild plants and animals and thus
conserve biological and genetic diversity. It
supports different food chains and food
chains.
• Production function: production of wide range
of goods ranging from food to raw materials.
FUNCTIONS OF ECOSYSTEM
• Regulatory functions: ecosystem regulates essential ecological
processes and life support systems and renders stability.
Responsible for cycling of nutrients between biotic and abiotic
components(biogeochemical cycles). Also, it provides many
services that have direct and indirect benefits to humans (i.e.,
clean air, water and soil). Soil formation, climate regulation,
etc.
• Every ecosystem regulates and maintains itself and resists any
stresses or disturbances upto a certain limit. This is known as
cybernetic system.
 FUNCTIONS OF
ECOSYSTEM
• Informational function: ecosystems
provide an essential 'reference
function' and contribute to the
maintenance of human health by
providing opportunities for spiritual
enrichment, cognitive development,
recreation and aesthetic experience.
STRUCTURE OF
ECOSYSTEM
 BIOTIC COMPONENTS OF
ECOSYSTEM
•Living factors of an
environment

Figure 1: Three types of biotic factors in an ecosystem.

 BIOTIC COMPONENTS OF
ECOSYSTEM
• Different living organisms constitute the
biotic components of an ecosystem.
• This refers to large life-forms such as
trees or mammals, small life-forms such
as insects and algae, and microscopic
life-forms such as bacteria.
• Biotic, meaning of or related to life, are
living factors. Plants, animals, fungi and
bacteria are all biotic or living factors.
 PRODUCERS

• Most important components of ecosystem.

• Producers are organisms which are able to manufacture
organic compounds from inorganic substances from their
environment.
• Food is produced both for themselves and for other
organisms.
• They depend directly on the abiotic component for their
survival and production of nutrients.
• Producers are also known as autotrophs (derived from
Greek words: “autos” meaning self and “trophe” meaning
nourishment)
• They induce into the ecosystem, the energy required for it
biological processes.
 PRODUCERS
• Producers extract nutrients from soil or ocean and
manufacture their own food using photosynthesis, in the
presence of carbon dioxide and sunlight and so energy from
sun powers the base of food chain. Producers are also, thus
known as primary producers.
• An exception occurs in deep-sea hydrothermal ecosystems
where there is no sunlight. Here, the primary producers
manufacture food through a process called chemosynthesis.
• Chemosynthesis is a process certain organisms use to produce
energy, akin to photosynthesis, but without the utilization of
sunlight. The energy comes from the oxidization (burning) of
chemicals which seep up from the Earth's crust.
• So, producers are either photo-autotrophs or
chemo-autotrophs.
Figure 2: An autotroph mechanism of making its own
food.
 CONSUMERS

• Consumers are organisms that obtain nutrients by

consuming other organisms.
• These organisms are formally referred to
as heterotrophs (derived from Greek words
“heteros” meaning another/ different and “trophe”
meaning nourishment.
• A heterotroph is an organism that cannot synthesize
their own food and must obtain it ready made.
• They can be herbivores, carnivores, omnivores or
detritivores.
Figure 3: Different types of consumers as biotic factors in an
ecosystem.
 HETEROTROPHS

Figure 4: Different types of heterotrophs.

 HERBIVORES

• Animals who derive their required energy

directly from consuming the plants and
plants only.
• Also known as primary consumers.
• Herbivores have special digestive systems
that let them digest all kinds of plants,
including grasses.
• Eg. Rabbit, cattle, horse, sheep, insects, etc.
 CARNIVORES

• Animals that feed on other animals.

• Carnivores generally eat herbivores
(secondary consumers), but occasionally
eat other carnivores also (tertiary
consumers).
• Eg: lion, tiger, cats, birds of prey, sharks,
frogs, etc.
 PREDATORS SCAVENGERS
• A predator is an • Scavengers eat the food that has
been killed and left behind by
organism that hunts and
predators.
kills other organisms for
food. • EXAMPLES: vultures, racoons,
hyena, etc.
• EXAMPLES: lions, tigers, • Scavengers play an important role
sharks, wolves, snakes, in the ecosystem by consuming
etc. the carcass of of animals that
have been left to decompose.
Decomposers and detritivores
complete this process, by
consuming the remains left by
scavengers.
 OMNIVORES
• Animals that feed on both plants and animals.
• Omnivores often are opportunistic, general
feeders with neither carnivore nor herbivore
specializations for acquiring or processing
food, and are capable of consuming and do
consume both animal protein and vegetation.
• Many omnivores depend on a suitable mix of
animal and plant food for long-term good
health and reproduction.
• EXAMPLES: humans, bear, etc.
 DETRITIVORES
• They feed on dead plant and animal matter,
but perform an additional function which is
to return essential nutrients back to the
ecosystem in the process.
• Detritivores actually eat organic matter.
• They are essential for recycling of nutrients:
without them dead plant material would not
be returned to the soil for new growth
• EXAMPLES: worms, millipedes, sea stars,
crabs, dung flies.
 DETRITIVORES
• Detritivores consume dead organic material
such as carcasses, fallen leaves, dead plants,
animal droppings and shed skins.
• Having consumed the material, the organism
then excretes or egests waste.
• This waste contains nutrients which are thus
returned to the soil, facilitating new plant
growth, or made easier for other organisms to
consume. By breaking down dead matter into
smaller pieces, detritivores speed up the
process of decomposition.
 DECOMPOSERS/ SAPROBES
• These are micro-organisms which break-down organic
matter into inorganic compounds and derive their nutrition
in the process. Decomposers break down complex
compound into simpler compounds without eating
them.
• For example, fungi can grow on organic matter, such as a
dead tree trunk or a piece of bread, and breaks it down and
absorbing the nutrients without eating the wood or the
bread.
• These are organisms that aid in decomposition of already
dead or dying organisms.
• Decomposers secrete enzymes to digest organic matter and
then absorb resulting molecules.
• EXAMPLES: bacteria, fungi, etc.
Figure 5: Representative image of all the types of decomposers in
the ecosystem,
Examples., insects and worms
 ABIOTIC COMPONENTS OF
ECOSYSTEM
• The non-living factors of an
environment
Example.) water, soil, air
 ABIOTIC COMPONENTS OF
ECOSYSTEM
• The nonliving materials in an ecosystem, such as
minerals, gases, liquids and chemicals are
referred to as abiotic or non-biotic factors.
• Abiotic, meaning not alive, are nonliving factors
that affect living organisms. Environmental factors
such habitat (pond, lake, ocean, desert, mountain)
or weather such as temperature, cloud cover,
rain, snow, hurricanes, etc. are abiotic factors.
 ABIOTIC COMPONENTS OF
ECOSYSTEM
• An abiotic factor is a nonliving condition or
thing, such as climate or habitat, that
influences or affects an ecosystem and the
organisms in it.
• Abiotic factors can determine which species
of organisms will survive in a given
environment.
ABIOTIC COMPONENTS OF
ECOSYSTEM
 BIOTIC AND ABIOTIC

• Together, biotic and abiotic factors

determine the survival and growth
of an organism and the productivity
of the ecosystem in which the
organism lives