Energy Flow

By: Sofia Beller

Respiration and Energy Release
● Energy released by respiration is used in living organisms and
converted to heat.
● Living organisms need energy for cell activities such as these:
● Synthesizing large molecules like DNA, RNA and proteins.
● Pumping molecules or ions across membranes by active transport.
● Moving things around inside the cell, such as chromosomes or
vesicles, or in muscle cells the protein fibres that cause muscle
contraction.
ATP (Adenosine Triphosphate) in Cell Respiration

● ATP supplies energy for these activities. Every cell produces its own ATP
supply.
● All cells can produce ATP by cell respiration. In this process carbon compounds
such as carbohydrates and lipids are oxidized.
● These oxidation reactions are exothermic and the energy released is used in
endothermic reactions to make ATP. So cell respiration transfers chemical
energy from glucose and other carbon compounds to ATP.
● The reason for doing this is that the chemical energy in carbon compounds such
as glucose is not immediately usable by the cell, but the chemical energy in ATP
can be used directly for many different activities.
Heat Energy in Ecosystems
Living organisms cannot convert heat to other forms of energy.
Living organisms can perform various energy conversions:

● Light energy to chemical energy in photosynthesis.

● Chemical energy to kinetic energy in muscle contraction.
● Chemical energy to electrical energy in nerve cells.
● Chemical energy to heat energy in heat-generating adipose tissue.

They cannot convert heat energy into any other form of energy.
Heat Losses From Ecosystems
● Heat resulting from cell respiration makes living
organisms warmer.
● This heat can be useful in making cold-blooded
animals more active.
● According to the laws of thermodynamics in
physics, heat passes from hotter to cooler bodies.
● The heat may remain in the ecosystem for a while,
but ultimately is lost.
● Ecologists assume that all energy released by
respiration for use in cell activities will ultimately
be lost from an ecosystem.
Energy Losses and Ecosystems
● Energy losses between trophic levels restrict the length of food chains and the biomass of
higher trophic levels.
● Biomass is the total mass of a group of organisms.
● Ecologists can measure how much energy is added per year by groups of organisms to
their biomass.
● The results are calculated per square metre of the ecosystem so that different trophic
levels can be compared.
● The same trend is always found: the energy added to biomass by each successive trophic
level is less.
● In secondary consumers, for example, the amount of energy is always less per year per
square metre of ecosystem than in primary consumers. The reason for this trend is loss of
energy between trophic levels.
Energy Losses and Ecosystems
● Most of the energy in food that is digested and absorbed by organisms in a trophic level is
released by them in respiration for use in cell activities.
● The only energy available to organisms in the next trophic level is chemical energy in
carbohydrates and other carbon compounds that have not been used up in cell respiration.
● The organisms in a trophic level are not usually entirely consumed by organisms in the
next trophic level.
● Predators may not eat material from the bodies of their prey such as bones or hair.
Energy in uneaten material passes to saprotrophs or detritivores rather than passing to
organisms in the next trophic level.
● Not all parts of food ingested by the organisms in a trophic level are digested and
absorbed.
Questions
1. What is ATP?
2. Why do organisms need energy? (give examples)
3. Living organisms cannot convert heat to other forms of energy. They can
perform various energy. True or False conversions:
THE END