Ecosystem

Tr. Zaw
University of Medicine
 Food chain

 A food chain arranges a

community’s feeding relationships
by trophic level.
 All food chains start with producers.
These are typically plants that make
their own food by capturing energy from
light.
 Animals are consumers and may be
herbivores, carnivores, or omnivores
 Food web

 A food web is a diagram that shows which

organisms feed on which other organisms in a
community.
 The arrows point from the food sources to the
consumers.
 Food web shows all possible feeding
relationships at each feeding level.
 Some consumers feed at several different levels.
 Some animals are herbivores, meaning that
they eat only plants, while some are
carnivores, meaning that they eat only
animals.
 Still others are omnivores, meaning that they
eat both plants and animals.
 Below is a food web for a grassland ecosystem
 Trophic levels

 Autotrophs create their own food,

and do not gain their nutrition from
other creatures.
 Primary consumers, or herbivores,
eat plants, algae, and other producers.
 Secondary consumers eat primary
consumers.
 Tertiary consumers eat secondary
consumers.
 Apex predators are at the top of the
food chain, and have no predators
other than humans.
 Energy flow

 Producers form the base of the pyramid.

 The size of each block is proportional to
the amount of available energy.
 Only a small percentage of a feeding
level’s energy is passed up to the next
level.
 A food chain typically has no more than
five links.
 Animals also lose energy to the environment in
their urine and feces.
 Only a small proportion of the energy gained can
be passed on to the next trophic level
 The explanation is relatively straightforward.
 When a rabbit eats grass, not all of the materials in the grass plant end
up as rabbit.
 There are losses:
 (1) some parts of the grass are not eaten (for example the roots)
 (2) some parts are not digested and so are not absorbed, even though
rabbits have a very efficient digestive system
 (3) some of the materials absorbed form excretory products
 (4) many of the materials are respired to release energy, with the loss of
carbon dioxide and water.
 In fact, only a small fraction of the materials in the grass ends up in new
cells in the rabbit. Similar losses are repeated at each stage in the food
chain, so smaller and smaller amounts of biomass are available 8 for
growth at successive trophic levels. The shape of pyramids of biomass
reflects due to this food change process.
 Ecological pyramids

 Ecological pyramids are diagrams that represent the relative amounts of

organisms at each trophic level in a food chain.
 There are two main types.
 Pyramids of numbers, which represent the numbers of organisms in
each trophic level in a food chain, irrespective of their mass.
 Pyramids of biomass, which show the total mass of the organisms in
each trophic level, irrespective of their numbers.
 Consider these two food chains:
(a) grass → grasshoppers → frogs → carnivorous birds
(b) oak tree → aphids → ladybird beetles → insectivorous birds
The owner of a small freshwater aquarium notices bubbles rising from the leaves of one of
the aquatic plants. She researches the process of photosynthesis in aquatic plants and
makes more observations. She concludes that the bubbles are oxygen gas. Which statement
supports her conclusion?
A. Photosynthesis takes place in the chloroplasts of leaf cells.
B. Leaves use oxygen to make glucose during photosynthesis.
C. Plants absorb carbon dioxide and water for photosynthesis.
D. Leaves release oxygen as they make glucose during photosynthesis.
The cow would best fit which of the following roles ?
E. producer
F. decomposer
G. primary consumer
H. secondary consumer
The best model of organisms’ complex feeding relationships is a(n)
I. food web.
J. energy link.
K. food chain
L. energy pyramid.
Which of the following accounts for the most energy in the ecological pyramid?
A. Detrivores
B. autotrophs
C. Herbivores
D. carnivores
Which of the following is a link between photosynthetic organisms. and
carnivores?
E. a chicken
F. a human
G. a coyote
H. a rabbit
Suppose the producers had 18,000 units of energy. Approximately how much
energy would reach the level of tertiary consumers?
A. 1.8 units B. 180 units C. 1,800 units D. 18 unit
Which of the following is a significant factor of the energy transfer depicted by
the energy pyramid?
A. The energy pyramid is applicable to animals only.
B. There is a large difference in the number of organisms in the lowest and
highest trophic levels.
C. The energy pyramid does not include all living organisms in the ecosystem.
D. The energy pyramid holds true only during the daytime, i.e., when sunlight is
present

Which of the following information is NOT represented in the pyramid?

E. The number of organisms decreases as you move up the pyramid.
F. The energy flow in the ecosystem starts from the producers.
G. If there is a sudden increase in the population of primary consumers, then
that block will become the lowest in the pyramid.
H. Energy flows from the bottom to the top of the pyramid
 Predator-Prey relationship
 A predator is an animal that eats other
animals.
 The animals that are eaten are called
prey.
 The number of predators in an
ecosystem affects the number of prey
and vice versa.
 Simple predator–prey cycles can happen
only in very simple food chains, where
predators cannot move away to feed
elsewhere.
 If the predator population falls, the prey
population is likely to rise.
 In a healthy ecosystem, predator and
prey numbers are usually in balance
 Predation is another
interaction between species,
in which one species, the
predator that kills and eats
the prey.
 Examples –
(1) Insectivorous plants
(predator) and insects (prey)
(2) A lion (predator) and
antelope (prey)
 Symbiosis

 Symbiosis is derived from a Greek word meaning, "living

together". It is an ecological relationship, in which two different
species live in close contact with each other.
 There are three types of symbiosis. they are
1. mutualism,
2. commensalism and
3. parasitism.
 Mutualism

 Mutualism is an intimate relationship between two different species, in which

both species get benefit.

1. A lichen is a mutualistic relationship between a unicellular green algae and a

fungus. Fungus provides protection and retains water and minerals. Algae
provides fungus with photosynthetic products.

2. More intimate mutualistic relationship is found in termites and the

protozoan, Trichonympha. Termites provides shelter for Trichonympha as it
lives in the intestine of wood as they have no cellulase, the enzyme that can
digest cellulose in wood. Thus, both species get benefit.
 Commensalism
 Commensalism is a relationship between two different species, in which one
species benefits while the other is not harmed or helped in any
significant way.

1. Epiphytes – such as orchid, grow on the branches of tree where they can
receive light but they take no nutrient from the host tree. The roots of the
orchids obtain nutrient and water from the air.

2. Barnacles that attach to the body of whales is one of the examples of

commensalism. Barnacles can get everywhere that whale go, so they can
reach to places where food are available and plenty. As barnacles are
sedentary animals, they cannot find their food. in this situation, barnacles get
benefits while whales get neither harm nor benefit.
 Parasitism
 Parasitism is a relationship between two species, in which one species
is called a host and another is a parasite.
 Parasite gets benefit from host but host can get harm. Parasites
usually do not kill the host, at least not immediately.
 Parasites that cause diseases are known as pathogens.

1. In plants, Cuscuta spp. (i.e., dodder) are stem parasites that naturally
graft to their host plant to extract water and nutrient.

2. Parasitic relationship between tapeworm and human, in which human

is the host while tapeworm is a parasite. Tapeworm lives inside the
host's intestine for shelter and food, so it gets benefit. Human host
causes nutritional deficiencies.
 Competition

 Competition is a kind of interaction between organisms.

 There are two types of competition; intraspecific
competition and interspecific competition.
 (a) Intraspecific competition is the co0mpetition between
organisms of the same species for food, shelter and mate.
 Example – Rabbits compete for grasses, shelter and mates for
reproduction.
 (b) Interspecific competition is the competition between
individuals of different species for resources, such as food and
shelter that limit their growth and survival.
 Examples – (1) Weeds growing in the gardens compete with
the garden plants for sunlight, soil, nutrients and water. (2)
Grasshoppers and bisons which live in the Savana grassland
compete for grasses which they both eat.
Abiotic or physical factors and biotic
factors of an ecosystem
Limiting factors for population

Food availability
 The number of animals an ecosystem can support is limited by the
amount of food available. If food availability falls—for example, because
of a drought—animal populations will fall, too. This kind of biotic factor is
also known as a limiting factor.
Diseases
 Many diseases are caused by infectious microorganisms, such as
bacteria, viruses, or parasites carried by biting insects. If a new disease
appears in an ecosystem, the outbreak can spread rapidly, causing the
population of affected animals or plants to fall dramatically.
Types of limiting factors
 A density-dependent limiting factor gets worse as the population
increases and crowding gets worse.
 A density-independent limiting factor will impact a population regardless
of its density.
Carrying capacity
 Extinction
 Extinction is the disappearance from everywhere in the world of an entire
species of organism.
 Extinctions can be caused by many factors, including human activity.
 Human activities including hunting, urbanization, and the destruction of
forests to create farmland are primarily responsible for the habitat destruction
that eventually leads to extinctions