12.

0 Ecosystem Ecology Recap

12.1 Energy Flow and Chemical Cycling

 You should be able to refine scientific models and questions about the effect
of complex biotic and abiotic interactions on all biological systems, from cells
and organisms to populations, communities and ecosystems.
 You should be able to design a plan for collecting data to show that all
biological systems (cells, organisms, populations, communities, and
ecosystems) are affected by complex biotic and abiotic interactions.
 You should be able to analyze data to identify possible patterns and
relationships between a biotic or abiotic factor and a biological system (cells,
organisms, populations, communities or ecosystems).
 You should be able to use representations or models to analyze quantitatively
and qualitatively the effects of disruptions to dynamic homeostasis in
biological systems.
 You should be able to apply mathematical routines to quantities that describe
interactions among living systems and their environment, which result in the
movement of matter and energy.
 You should be able to use visual representations to analyze situations or solve
problems qualitatively to illustrate interactions among living systems and with
their environment result in the movement of matter and energy.
 You should be able to predict the effects of a change of matter or energy
availability on communities.
 You should be able to use representations and models to analyze how
cooperative interactions within organisms promote efficiency in the use of
energy and matter.
 You should be able to make scientific claims and predictions about how
species diversity within an ecosystem influences ecosystem stability.

The Sun
 The ecosystem’s energy comes from the sun.
 The sun’s light provides energy for photosynthesis.
 Organisms then use the products of photosynthesis for energy through
respiration.
 Energy flows through ecosystems from sunlight, through organisms, to heat.
Matter (CO2 , O2 , glucose, and water) is cycled through organisms through
photosynthesis, respiration, and organisms eating each other.

Energy flow
 Food chains represent a single pathway of feeding relationships.
 o Nutrients and energy flow from one trophic level to the next (from
plants to herbivores to carnivores...producers to consumers).
 The amount of available energy within each trophic level can be represented
by a pyramid.
o The primary producers (plants) represent the most available energy.
o The primary consumers that eat the plants can only extract a fraction
of the energy within the plants so the next trophic level is smaller.
o The secondary consumers that eat the primary consumers can also
only extract a fraction of the energy within the plants so the next
trophic level is also smaller and so on.
 This fraction is usually estimated as 10%.
 Besides the trophic (energy) pyramid, we can model other parts of the
ecosystem with pyramids such as the number of individuals, and the biomass.
o Since we know that energy becomes less available as you go up the
pyramid, the amount of organisms in each level also tends to go down
as you go up the pyramid.

Biological Magnification
 Shows how toxins move from the lower steps of the pyramid up to high
concentrations at the top steps of the pyramid.
 Think about how this happens:
o Plants at the bottom end of the pyramid have low concentrations.
o The consumers that eat the plants eat many plants so that their
concentration is higher than the plants.
o And so on until the top of the pyramid shows a magnified toxin level.

Food webs
 Represent the connections between several food chains.
 This more accurately shows the relationship within an ecosystem.

Matter Cycling
 Biogeochemical cycling
o Water cycle, carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, and phosphorus cycle
o Carbon cycle is most related to photosynthesis and respiration. Plants
breathe in CO2 which they use in photosynthesis to convert to
biological mass that then makes up the carbon mass of the rest of the
organisms in the ecosystem.

12.2 Energy Transfers

 You should be able to design a plan for collecting data to show that all
biological systems (cells, organisms, populations, communities, and
ecosystems) are affected by complex biotic and abiotic interactions.
  You should be able to analyze data to identify possible patterns and
relationships between a biotic or abiotic factor and a biological system (cells,
organisms, populations, communities or ecosystems).
 You should be able to use representations or models to analyze quantitatively
and qualitatively the effects of disruptions to dynamic homeostasis in
biological systems.
 You should be able to apply mathematical routines to quantities that describe
interactions among living systems and their environment, which result in the
movement of matter and energy.
 You should be able to predict the effects of a change of matter or energy
availability on communities.
 You should be able to use representations and models to analyze how
cooperative interactions within organisms promote efficiency in the use of
energy and matter.

Primary Productivity
 A measure of how much carbon is added to the biomass of an ecosystem. In
other words, it’s how much photosynthesis the producers go through.
 Net primary productivity = Gross primary productivity - Respiration
 Two ways to calculate Primary Productivity
o Determine how much mass is assimilated from photosynthesis
o Determine how much oxygen has been released because of
photosynthesis

Energy flow through an organism

 Ingestion means an organism consuming food.
 Production is the organism using the food to make new products.
 Assimilation is when these products become part of the organism.
 Respiration and waste excretion represent how an organism loses mass
during its life.
 Decomposition is how the rest of the mass is returned to the ecosystem after
death.

12.3 Human Activity That Threatens Biodiversity

 You should be able to refine scientific models and questions about the effect
of complex biotic and abiotic interactions on all biological systems, from cells
and organisms to populations, communities and ecosystems.
 You should be able to design a plan for collecting data to show that all
biological systems (cells, organisms, populations, communities, and
ecosystems) are affected by complex biotic and abiotic interactions.
  You should be able to use representations or models to analyze quantitatively
and qualitatively the effects of disruptions to dynamic homeostasis in
biological systems.

Humans threaten biodiversity in four ways

 Climate change
o Weather data clearly shows that climate is changing in the past century
at an accelerated pace.
o Evidence shows that the acceleration is due to human activity resulting
in an excess production of greenhouse gas.
o The climate appears to be changing at a pace that exceeds normal
rates which will result in the extinction of species as they are unable to
adapt to a rapidly changing environment.
o Higher global temperatures will result in more extreme weather as well
as rising sea levels.
 Overharvesting/fishing
o We are simply taking fish faster than they can reproduce.
o This results in declining fish populations and threatens economic
stability in the future since we may not be able to depend upon fishing
as a reliable food source if we continue at this pace.
o Overharvesting refers to the depletion of soil due to agricultural
purposes. This results in diminishing returns from the soil until it is
ultimately unable to support much life.
 Invasive Species
o We discussed the success of invasive species in a previous section. The
main point to learn in this section is that humans are directly
responsible for moving invasive species across the world (through
boats, planes, cars, etc.).
 Habitat loss;
o Humans clear out large amounts of natural foliage for agricultural,
residential, and commercial purposes.
o The result is that plants and animals simply have less space to live in
because we’re taking it up.
o This destruction obviously leads to the ecosystem supporting less
organisms.

All of these problems call for a change in human behavior.

 Humans have already tried to mitigate the effects of human activity on the
environment by recognizing which species are being harmed and taking care
to protect them (endangered species act) and going as far as breeding them
to restore populations.
 Monitoring the ecosystem also lets us understand how human activity like the
use of DDT harms animals like eagles and allows us to change our agricultural
practices (stop using DDT = stop hurting eagles).
 Still, these problems exist and we’ll likely have to continue coming up with
new solutions and compromises between human economic growth and
ecological health.