TROPHIC LEVEL

ECOSYSTEM
ECOSYSTEM

COMMUNITY

PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT

Matter and energy are continually moving from the physical environment through living things and back into the physical environment. Energy flows. Matter recycles.

FREE
The muscle you move is powered by the energy you borrowed from a plant or animal that in turn got it from the sun. It is now dissipated in the form of low grade heat; no longer to be used by an other living or non-living thing.

PRODUCERS
AUTOTROPHS- CAN MANUFACTURE FOOD FROM INORGANIC RAW MATERIALS Plants which contains chlorophyll to absorb light energy Producers are remarkable chemical factories. Using light energy, they make glucose from carbon dioxide and water.

CONSUMERS
HETEROTROPHSOBTAINING ITS FOOD BY CONSUMING OTHER ORGANISM. Only a portion of the food ingested by a consumer is assimilated into body growth, maintenance and repair. Larger amount are utilized to provide energy for assimilation, movements and other functions. The rest becomes wastes.

SAPROPHYTES
TWO KINDS OF SAPROTROPHS

1. DECOMPOSERSbacteria and fungi

2. DETRITIVORESanimal consumers of dead matters

TROPHIC STRUCTURE
trophic means feeding
trophic structure is the pattern of movement of energy and matter through an ecosystem.

It is the result of compressing a community food web into a series of trophic levels.
Standing crop per unit area Energy fixed per unit time

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 NUTRITIONAL OR TROPHIC LEVEL- hierarchical organization of energy flowing from one level to another the transfer of energy from one trophic level to the next is never 100% efficient. therefore, all pyramids of energy are bottom large. no exceptions. PHENOMENON 1. Units are required to equal the mass of the of one big unit (geometric factor). 2. Food chains contribute to the pattern. 3. Inverse size of metabolic pattern.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ENERGY FLOW

Provides a means of comparing the ecosystem with one another and a means of evaluating the relative importance of the population (Odum 1971)

ENERGY AND NUTRIENT FLOW

Gross primary- is the total rate of
photosynthesis that is the rate of the storage of organic matter in plant tissues

Net community productivity- the rate of

PRODUCTIVITY organic matters not used by the heterotrophs

Temperature Nutrients

Secondary productiveness- energy storage

at the consumer level.

Richness- productivity of an ecosystem

Moisture

KEY FACTORS AFFECTING FOOD PRODUCTION

Available Land Soil quality Water Fertilizer Plant and Animal breeding Pest and Disease control Pollution control Climate

Homework: Tabulate positive and negative aspects of the above items on food productions

NUTRIENT CYCLE

NUTRIENT CYCLE
Local cycles- elements non mechanism for long distance (e.g. phosphorus cycle), occurs at the local level through the action of the biota Global cycle- involving interchange between atmosphere and the ecosystem applicable to the elements such as nitrogen, carbon, oxygen and water in geological process atmospheric circulation, erosion and weathering

NUTRIENTS: THE ELEMENTS OF LIFE

Of the 50 to 70 atoms (elements) that are found in living things, only 15 or so account for the major portion of living biomass. Only around half of these 15 have been studied extensively as they travel through ecosystems or circulate on a global scale.

A GENERALIZED MODEL OF NUTRIENT CYCLING IN AN ECOSYSTEM

The cycling of nutrients in an ecosystem are interlinked by an a number of processes that move atoms from and through organisms and to and from the atmosphere, soil and/or rocks, and water. Nutrients can flow between these compartments along a variety of pathways.

PHOSPHOROUS CYCLE IN ECOSYSTEMS

Phosphorus, as phosphate (PO4-3), is an essential element of life. It does not cycle through atmosphere, thus enters producers through the soil and is cycled locally through producers, consumers and decomposers.

Generally, small local losses by leaching are balanced by gains from the weathering of rocks.
Over very long time periods (geological time) phosphorus follows a sedimentary cycle.

HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE
Water is the solvent in which all the chemistry of life takes place and the source of its hydrogen. The earths oceans, ice caps, glaciers, lakes, rivers, soils and atmosphere contains about 1.5 billion cubic kilometers of H2O.

It has been estimated that all the earths water is split by plant cells and reconstituted by the biota about every 2,000,000 years.

Condensation Precipitation Transpiration

Condensation

Precipitation Evaporation

Seepage

Surface Run-off

Ground Water

HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE
1. Water cycles between the oceans, atmosphere and land. All living organisms require water. A. Water enters the atmosphere as water vapor, a gas, when water evaporates from the ocean or other bodies of water. Evaporationthe process by which water changes from a liquid to a gas. B. Water can also enter the atmosphere by evaporating from the leaves of plantsTranspiration. C. Precipitation--rain, snow, sleet, or hail a. The sun heats the atmosphere. b. Warm, moist air rises and cools. c. Eventually, the water vapor condenses into tiny droplets that form clouds. d. When the droplets become large enough, the water return to Earths surface. D. Run-offPrecipitation runs along the surface of the ground until it enters a river or a stream that carries the run-off back to an ocean or lake. E. SeepageRain also seeps into the soil, some of it deeply enough to become ground water. Water in the soil enters plants through the roots, and the water cycle begins anew.

NITROGEN CYCLE IN ECOSYSTEMS

Nitrogen (N2) makes up 78% of the atmosphere.
Most living things, however, can not use atmospheric nitrogen to make amino-acids and other nitrogen containing compounds. They are dependent on nitrogen fixing bacteria to convert N2 into NH3(NH4+).

Nitrogen Gas in Atmosphere

Denitrification

Nitrogen Fixation

Nitrates (NO3-) Decomposers return ammonia to soil

Nitrites (NO2-)

SOURCES OF NITROGEN TO THE SOIL

Natural ecosystems receive their soil nitrogen through biological fixation and atmospheric deposition. Agricultural ecosystems receive additional nitrogen through fertilizer addition.

BIOLOGICAL SOURCES OF SOIL NITROGEN

Only a few species of bacteria and cyanobacteria are capable of nitrogen fixation.
Some are fee-living and others form mutualistic associations with plants. A few are lichens.

ATMOSPHERIC SOURCES OF SOIL NITROGEN

Lightning was the major source of soil nitrogen until recent times when the burning of fossil fuels became a major source of atmospheric deposition.
Nitrogen oxides come from a variety of combustion sources that use fossil fuels. In urban areas, at least half of these pollutants come cars and other vehicles.

NITRIFICATION

Several species of bacteria can convert ammonium (NH4+) into nitrites (NO2-). Other bacterial species convert nitrites (NO2-) to nitrates (NO3-).

GLOBAL CARBON CYCLE

All but a small portion of the earths carbon (C) is tied up in sedimentary rocks; but the portion that circulates is what sustains life. The active pool of carbon is estimated to be around 40,000 gigatons. 93.2 % found in the ocean; 3.7% in soils; 1.7% in atmosphere; 1.4% in vegetation.

THE CARBON CYCLE

1. Every organic molecule contains the element carbon. A. Carbon and oxygen form carbon dioxide gas (CO2), an important component of the atmosphere. B. Carbon dioxide is taken in by plants during photosynthesis and is given off by plants and animals during cellular respiration. 2. Four main types of processes move carbon through its cycle: A. Biological processes, such as photosynthesis, cellular respiration, and decomposition, take up and release carbon and oxygen. B. Geochemical processes, such as erosion and volcanic activity, release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere and oceans. C. Mixed biogeochemical processes, such as the burial and decomposition of dead organisms and their conversion under pressure into coal and petroleum (fossil fuels), store carbon underground. D. Human activities, such as mining, cutting and burning forests, and burning fossil fuels, release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

Burning of Fossil Fuels

CO2 in Atmosphere Cellular Respiration Photosynthesis

Coal and Petroleum

Decomposition of dead organisms

SULFUR CYCLE

STEPS OF THE CYCLE

SOURCES OF SULFUR

- 70 Tg(S) per year in the form of SO2 comes from fossil fuel combustion and industry - 2.8 Tg(S) from wildfires - 8 Tg(S) per year from volcanoes

CHEMOLITHOTROPHIC ORGANISMS
The Thiovulum/Riftia symbiosis
Riftia is a tube worm, ~ 2 meters long, found near thermal vents in the deep sea. Riftia contains an organ called a trophosome that harbours Thiovolum and severalother prokaryotic genera The worm contains a unique haemoglobin that binds the hydrogen sulphide generated by volcanic activity and delivers it to the bacterial symbiont. Bacterial oxidation of the hydrogen sulfide generates the energy that is required to fix carbon. The worm receives the fixed carbon from the bacteria.

CHEMOLITHOTROPHIC ORGANISMS
Beggiatoa - historically important
because it was the first chemolithotroph identified. can be found in marine or freshwater environments. They can usually be found in habitats that have high levels of hydrogen sulfide.

CHEMOLITHOTROPHIC ORGANISMS
Thiobacillus - an obligate acidophile, very tolerant
of low pH; in addition to oxidizing hydrogen sulfide, this organism can extract iron from solid pyrite (FeS2) in a two-step process in which sulfur atoms are oxidized. First, the organism catalyzes the oxidation of ferrous iron, generating ferric iron Fe2++ 1/2 O2 + 2 H+ -----> Fe3++ H2O Secondly, the ferric iron produced spontaneously reacts with pyrite FeS2 + 14 Fe3+ + 8 H2O -----> 15 Fe2+ + 2 SO4 2- + 16 H+
The reaction is self-supporting, since the ferrous iron produced in the second reaction can be fed back into the first reaction.

SULFATE REDUCERS
Desulfovibrio - found in water-logged soils. Desulfotomaculum - cause of the "sulfide stinker", a type of
spoilage of canned foods. This is indicated by swelling of the can as hydrogen sulfide gas is produced and an unpleasant odor on opening the can.

Desulfomonas - found in intestines. Archaeglobus - a thermophilic Archea whose optimal growth

temperature is 83oC. prefix "Desulfo" indicates a sulfate reducer