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MILLER/SPOOLMAN
LIVING IN THE ENVIRONMENT 17TH

CHAPTER 3
Ecosystems: What Are They
and How Do They Work?

Core Case Study: Tropical Rain Forests

Are Disappearing
• Cover about 2% of the earth’s land surface

• Contain about 50% of the world’s known plant and

animal species

• Disruption will have three major harmful effects

• Reduce biodiversity
• Accelerate global warming
• Change regional weather patterns

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Natural Capital Degradation: Satellite Image of the Loss of

Tropical Rain Forest

Fig. 3-1a, p. 54

3-1 What Keeps Us and Other

Organisms Alive?
• Concept 3-1A The four major components of the
earth’s life-support system are the atmosphere (air),
the hydrosphere (water), the geosphere (rock, soil,
and sediment), and the biosphere (living things).

• Concept 3-1B Life is sustained by the flow of energy

from the sun through the biosphere, the cycling of
nutrients within the biosphere, and gravity.

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The Earth’s Life-Support System Has

Four Major Components
• Atmosphere
• Troposphere: where weather happens
• Stratosphere: contains ozone layer

• Hydrosphere

• Geosphere

• Biosphere

Natural Capital: General Structure of the Earth

Fig. 3-2, p. 56

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Atmosphere

Biosphere
(living organisms)
Soil
Rock
Crust

Mantle

Geosphere
Mantle (crust, mantle, core)

Core Atmosphere (air)

Hydrosphere (water)

Fig. 3-2, p. 56

The Diversity of Life

Fig. 3-3a, p. 56

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Three Factors Sustain Life on Earth

• One-way flow of high-quality energy:
• Sun → plants → living things → environment as heat →
radiation to space

• Cycling of nutrients through parts of the biosphere

• Gravity holds earths atmosphere

Sun, Earth, Life, and Climate

• Sun: UV, visible, and IR energy

• Radiation
• Absorbed by ozone and other atmosphere gases
• Absorbed by the earth
• Reflected by the earth
• Radiated by the atmosphere as heat

• Natural greenhouse effect

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Flow of Energy to and from the Earth

Fig. 3-4, p. 57

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Solar
radiation

Reflected by Radiated by
atmosphere atmosphere
UV radiation as heat

Lower Stratosphere (ozone

Most UV absorbed layer)
by ozone Heat radiated
Visible
Troposphere Heat added to by the earth
light
troposphere
Greenhouse effect
Absorbed
by the earth

Fig. 3-4, p. 57

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3-2 What Are the Major Components

of an Ecosystem?
• Concept 3-2 Some organisms produce the nutrients
they need, others get their nutrients by consuming
other organisms, and some recycle nutrients back to
producers by decomposing the wastes and remains
of organisms.

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Ecologists Study Interactions in Nature

• Ecology: how organisms interact with each other and
their nonliving environment
• Organisms
• Populations
• Communities
• Ecosystems
• Biosphere

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Levels of Organization in Nature

Fig. 3-5, p. 58

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Biosphere Parts of the earth's air, water,

and soil where life is found

Ecosystem A community of different species

interacting with one another and with
their nonliving environment of matter
and energy
Community Populations of different species
living in a particular place, and
potentially interacting with each
other

Population A group of individuals of the same

species living in a particular place

Organism An individual living being

Cell The fundamental structural and

functional unit of life

Molecule Chemical combination of two or

more atoms of the same or different
elements

Atom Smallest unit of a chemical

element that exhibits its chemical
properties
Fig. 3-5, p. 58

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Biosphere Parts of the earth's air,water, and soil

where life is found

Ecosystem A community of different species

interacting with one another and with
their nonliving environment of matter
and energy
Community Populations of different species
living in a particular place, and
potentially interacting with each
other
Population A group of individuals of the same
species living in a particular place

Organism An individual living being

The fundamental structural and

Cell functional unit of life

Molecule Chemical combination of two or

more atoms of the same or different
Water elements

Atom Smallest unit of a chemical element

Hydrogen Oxygen that exhibits its chemical properties Stepped Art
Fig. 3-5, p. 58

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Ecosystems Have Living and

Nonliving Components
• Abiotic
• Water
• Air
• Nutrients
• Rocks
• Heat
• Solar energy

• Biotic
• Living and once living

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Major Biotic and Abiotic Components of an

Ecosystem

Fig. 3-6, p. 59

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Oxygen (O2)
Precipitaton

Carbon dioxide (CO2)

Producer

Secondary
consumer (fox)

Primary consumer
(rabbit)

Producers

Water Decomposers

Soluble mineral nutrients

Fig. 3-6, p. 59

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Producers and Consumers Are the Living

Components of Ecosystems (1)
• Producers, autotrophs
• Photosynthesis:
• CO2 + H2O + sunlight → glucose + oxygen
• Chemosynthesis

• Consumers, heterotrophs
• Primary consumers = herbivores
• Secondary consumers
• Tertiary consumers
• Carnivores, Omnivores

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Producers

Fig. 3-7a, p. 59

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Consumers

Fig. 3-8a, p. 60

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Producers and Consumers Are the Living

Components of Ecosystems (2)
• Decomposers
• Consumers that release nutrients
• Bacteria
• Fungi

• Detritivores
• Feed on dead bodies of other organisms
• Earthworms
• Vultures

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Decomposer

Fig. 3-9a, p. 61

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Detritivores and Decomposers

Fig. 3-10, p. 61

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Detritus feeders Decomposers

Carpenter Termite
Bark beetle ant galleries and
Long-horned engraving carpenter
Dry rot
beetle holes ant work
fungus

Wood reduced
to powder Fungi

Powder broken down by

Time progression decomposers into plant
nutrients in soil
Fig. 3-10, p. 61

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Producers and Consumers Are the Living

Components of Ecosystems (3)
• Aerobic respiration
• Using oxygen to turn glucose back to carbon dioxide
and water

• Anaerobic respiration = fermentation

• End products are carbon compounds such as methane
or acetic acid

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Energy Flow and Nutrient Cycling

• One-way energy flow from sun

• Nutrient cycling of key materials

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Ecosystem Components

Fig. 3-11, p. 62

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Solar
Chemical nutrients energy
Heat (carbon dioxide,
oxygen, nitrogen,
minerals)

Heat Heat

Decomposers Producers (plants)

(bacteria, fungi)

Consumers (plant
eaters, meat eaters)
Heat Heat
Fig. 3-11, p. 62

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Science Focus: Many of the World’s Most

Important Species Are Invisible to Us
Microorganisms
• Bacteria
• Protozoa
• Fungi

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3-3 What Happens to Energy in

an Ecosystem?
• Concept 3-3 As energy flows through ecosystems in
food chains and webs, the amount of chemical
energy available to organisms at each succeeding
feeding level decreases.

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Energy Flows Through Ecosystems in

Food Chains and Food Webs
• Food chain
• Movement of energy and nutrients from one trophic
level to the next
• Photosynthesis → feeding → decomposition

• Food web
• Network of interconnected food chains

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A Food Chain

Fig. 3-12, p. 63

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First Trophic Second Third Trophic Fourth Trophic

Level Trophic Level Level
Level

Producers (plants) Primary consumers Secondary Tertiary consumers

(herbivores) consumers (top carnivores)
(carnivores)

Heat Heat Heat Heat

Solar
energy

Heat

Heat Heat

Decomposers and
detritus feeders

Fig. 3-12, p. 63

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A Food Web

Fig. 3-13, p. 64

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Fig. 3-13, p. 64

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Usable Energy Decreases with Each

Link in a Food Chain or Web
• Biomass
• Dry weight of all organic matter of a given trophic
level in a food chain or food web
• Decreases at each higher trophic level due to heat loss

• Pyramid of energy flow

• 90% of energy lost with each transfer
• Less chemical energy for higher trophic levels

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Pyramid of Energy Flow

Fig. 3-14, p. 65

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Usable energy available at

each trophic level Heat
(in kilocalories)
Tertiary consumers
(human) 10
Heat

Secondary
consumers (perch) 100
Heat Heat
Decomposers

Primary consumers
(zooplankton) 1,000
Heat

10,000
Producers
(phytoplankton)

Fig. 3-14, p. 65

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Usable energy available

at each trophic level Heat
(in kilocalories)
Tertiary
consumers 10
(human) Heat

Secondary
consumers 100
(perch) Heat Decomposers Heat

Primary
consumers 1,000
(zooplankton) Heat

10,000
Producers
(phytoplankton)

Stepped Art
Fig. 3-14, p. 65

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Some Ecosystems Produce Plant

Matter Faster Than Others Do
• Gross primary productivity (GPP)
• Rate at which an ecosystem’s producers convert solar
energy to chemical energy and biomass
• Kcal/m2/year
• Net primary productivity (NPP)
• Rate at which an ecosystem’s producers convert solar
energy to chemical energy, minus the rate at which
producers use energy for aerobic respiration
• Ecosystems and life zones differ in their NPP

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Estimated Annual Average NPP in Major Life Zones

and Ecosystems

Fig. 3-15, p. 66

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Terrestrial Ecosystems
Swamps and marshes
Tropical rain forest
Temperate forest
Northern coniferous forest (taiga)
Savanna
Agricultural land
Woodland and shrubland
Temperate grassland
Tundra (arctic and alpine)
Desert scrub
Extreme desert
Aquatic Ecosystems
Estuaries
Lakes and streams
Continental shelf
Open ocean

Fig. 3-15, p. 66

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3-4 What Happens to Matter in

an Ecosystem?
• Concept 3-4 Matter, in the form of nutrients, cycles
within and among ecosystems and the biosphere,
and human activities are altering these chemical
cycles.

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Nutrients Cycle in the Biosphere

• Biogeochemical cycles, nutrient cycles

• Hydrologic
• Carbon
• Nitrogen
• Phosphorus
• Sulfur

• Nutrients may remain in a reservoir for a period of

time

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Water Cycles through the Biosphere

• Natural renewal of water quality: three major processes
• Evaporation
• Precipitation
• Transpiration

• Alteration of the hydrologic cycle by humans

• Withdrawal of large amounts of freshwater at rates faster than
nature can replace it
• Clearing vegetation
• Increased flooding when wetlands are drained

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Hydrologic Cycle Including Harmful Impacts

of Human Activities

Fig. 3-16, p. 67

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Condensation Condensation
Ice and
snow

Transpiration
from plants
Precipitatio
n to land Evaporation of
surface water Evaporation
from ocean
Runoff

Lakes and
reservoirs Precipitatio
n to ocean
Runoff
Increased runoff on land
covered with crops,
Infiltration and buildings and pavement
percolation into Increased runoff
aquifer from cutting
Runoff forests and filling
wetlands

Groundwater Overpumping
in aquifers of aquifers Water pollution
Runoff

Ocean

Natural process
Natural reservoir
Human impacts
Natural pathway
Pathway affected by human activities Fig. 3-16, p. 67

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Glaciers Store Water

Fig. 3-17, p. 68

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Water Erodes Rock in Antelope Canyon

Fig. 3-18, p. 69

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Science Focus: Water’s Unique

Properties
• Properties of water due to hydrogen bonds between
water molecules:
• Exists as a liquid over a large range of temperature
• Changes temperature slowly
• High boiling point: 100˚C
• Adhesion and cohesion
• Expands as it freezes
• Solvent
• Filters out harmful UV

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Hydrogen Bonds in Water

Supplement 4, Fig 6

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How Salt Dissolves in Water

Supplement 4, Fig 3

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Carbon Cycle Depends on

Photosynthesis and Respiration
• Link between photosynthesis in producers and
respiration in producers, consumers, and
decomposers

• Additional CO2 added to the atmosphere

• Tree clearing
• Burning of fossil fuels
• Warms the atmosphere

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Natural Capital: Carbon Cycle with Major Harmful

Impacts of Human Activities

Fig. 3-19, p. 70

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Carbon dioxide in
atmosphere Respiration

Photosynthesis

Animals
(consumers) Burning
fossil fuels
Diffusion Forest fires

Plants
Deforestation (producers)

Transportation Respiration
Carbon in
plants
(producers)
Carbon dioxide Carbon in
animals
dissolved in ocean (consumers)
Decomposition
Carbon in
Marine food webs
Producers, consumers, fossil fuels
decomposers

Carbon in limestone
or dolomite Compaction
sediments

Process
Reservoir
Pathway affected by humans
Natural pathway
Fig. 3-19, p. 70

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Increase in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, 1960-2009

Supplement 9, Fig 14

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Nitrogen Cycles through the

Biosphere: Bacteria in Action (1)
• Nitrogen fixed by lightning
• Nitrogen fixed by bacteria and cyanobacteria
• Combine gaseous nitrogen with hydrogen to make
ammonia (NH3) and ammonium ions (NH4+)
• Nitrification
• Soil bacteria change ammonia and ammonium ions to
nitrate ions (NO3-)
• Denitrification
• Nitrate ions back to nitrogen gas

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Nitrogen Cycles through the

Biosphere: Bacteria in Action (2)
• Human intervention in the nitrogen cycle
1. Additional NO and N2O in atmosphere from burning
fossil fuels; also causes acid rain
2. N2O to atmosphere from bacteria acting on
fertilizers and manure
3. Destruction of forest, grasslands, and wetlands
4. Add excess nitrates to bodies of water
5. Remove nitrogen from topsoil

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Nitrogen Cycle in a Terrestrial Ecosystem with Major

Harmful Human Impacts

Fig. 3-20, p. 71

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Process Denitrification by bacteria

Nitrogen in
Reservoir atmosphere Nitrification by
Pathway affected by humans bacteria
Natural pathway
Nitrogen in
Electrical storms animals
Nitrogen oxides (consumers)
from burning fuel Volcanic
and using activity
inorganic
fertilizers
Nitrogen
in plants
(producers)

Decomposition
Nitrates from
fertilizer
runoff and Uptake by plants
decomposition

Nitrate in soil

Nitrogen loss Nitrogen

to deep ocean in ocean Bacteria
sediments sediments
Ammonia in soil

Fig. 3-20, p. 71

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Human Input of Nitrogen into the Environment

Supplement 9, Fig 16

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Phosphorus Cycles through the

Biosphere
• Cycles through water, the earth’s crust, and living
organisms

• Limiting factor for plant growth

• Impact of human activities

1. Clearing forests
2. Removing large amounts of phosphate from the
earth to make fertilizers
3. Erosion leaches phosphates into streams

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Phosphorus Cycle with Major Harmful Human

Impacts

Fig. 3-21, p. 73

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Process
Reservoir
Pathway affected by humans
Natural pathway
Phosphates Phosphates
in sewage in fertilizer Plate
Phosphates in tectonics
mining waste Runoff Runoff
Sea
birds
Runoff
Phosphate in
rock (fossil
Erosion bones,
guano) Ocean food
webs
Animals
(consumers) Phosphate Phosphate in
dissolved shallow ocean
in water sediments
Phosphate
in deep
Plants ocean
(producers) sediments

Bacteria

Fig. 3-21, p. 73

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Sulfur Cycles through the Biosphere

• Sulfur found in organisms, ocean sediments, soil, rocks, and
fossil fuels

• SO2 in the atmosphere

• H2SO4 and SO4-

• Human activities affect the sulfur cycle

• Burn sulfur-containing coal and oil
• Refine sulfur-containing petroleum
• Convert sulfur-containing metallic mineral ores

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Natural Capital: Sulfur Cycle with Major Harmful

Impacts of Human Activities

Fig. 3-22, p. 74

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Sulfur dioxide
in atmosphere

Sulfuric acid
Burning Refining and Sulfate
Smelting deposited
coal fossil fuels
as acid rain
Dimethyl Sulfur in
animals
sulfide a
(consumers)
bacteria
byproduct

Sulfur in
plants
Mining and (producers)
extraction Uptake
Sulfur by plants
in ocean Decay
sediments
Decay

Process Sulfur
Reservoir in soil, rock
Pathway affected by and fossil fuels
humans
Natural pathway Fig. 3-22, p. 74

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3-5 How Do Scientists Study

Ecosystems?
• Concept 3-5 Scientists use both field research and
laboratory research, as well as mathematical and
other models to learn about ecosystems.

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Some Scientists Study Nature Directly

• Field research: “muddy-boots biology”

• New technologies available

• Remote sensors
• Geographic information system (GIS) software
• Digital satellite imaging

• 2005, Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS)

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Science Focus: Satellites, Google Earth,

and the Environment
• Satellites as remote sensing devices
• Google Earth software allows you to view anywhere
on earth, including 3-D
• Satellites can collect data from anywhere in the
world

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Google Earth Images: Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

Fig. 3-A (3), p. 76

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Jeddah

Fig. 3-A (3), p. 76

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Some Scientists Study Ecosystems

in the Laboratory
• Simplified systems carried out in
• Culture tubes and bottles
• Aquaria tanks
• Greenhouses
• Indoor and outdoor chambers

• Supported by field research

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Some Scientists Use Models to

Simulate Ecosystems
• Mathematical and other models

• Computer simulations and projections

• Field and laboratory research needed for baseline

data

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We Need to Learn More about the

Health of the World’s Ecosystems
• Determine condition of the world’s ecosystems

• More baseline data needed

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Three Big Ideas

1. Life is sustained by the flow of energy from the sun

through the biosphere, the cycling of nutrients
within the biosphere, and gravity.
2. Some organisms produce the nutrients they need,
others survive by consuming other organisms, and
some recycle nutrients back to producer organisms.
3. Human activities are altering the flow of energy
through food chains and webs and the cycling of
nutrients within ecosystems and the biosphere.

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