ECOSYSTEM

By: Tio Magdalena Manurung, B.Sc.

 2.1 What is an ecosystem?
• An ecosystem is made up of a community
of organisms and the non-living
environment.

• The living components of the ecosystem are

called biotic factors, which include plants,
fish, invertebrates, and single-celled
organisms.
• The non-living components, or abiotic
factors, include the physical and chemical
components in the environment—
temperature, wind, water, sunlight, and
oxygen.
• Biotic and abiotic factors influence each
other in an always changing balance called
dynamic equilibrium.
 2.2 Ecological Roles and Relationships
•An ecosystem is a complex
network of interactions.
•All organisms must take in water,
food, and nutrients. Nutrients are
elements and compounds that
organisms need to live and grow.
•Organisms can be producers,
consumers, herbivores,
carnivores, or decomposers in
ecosystems.
•Eventually nutrients cycle back
into the ecosystem for the
producers.
INTERACTION IN ECOSYSTEM
1. Competition  occurs because there is limitation of the same need
factors between two organisms or more.
2. Predation  a particular organism will eat other organisms as food
sources
3. Symbiosis
 2.3 Symbiosis
•Symbiosis refers to any close relationship between two different
species. There are three types of symbiotic relationships:

1.Mutualism is a relationship in which both species obtain some

benefit from the interaction.

2.Commensalism is an interaction in which one organism benefits

while the other is unaffected.

3.Parasitism occurs when one organism (the parasite) lives and

feeds on, or in, the body of another organism (the host).
 2.4 Trophic Levels and Energy Flow
•Nutrients are cycled back into the ecosystem, but energy only
moves in one direction through the community from
producers to herbivores
to carnivores.
•Trophic level describes the position of the organism in
relation to the order of nutrient and energy transfers in an
ecosystem. Organisms that eat the same type of food belong
to the same trophic level.

•Food chains show a single pathway taken by nutrients and

energy through the trophic levels.

•In reality, ecosystems have more complex food webs,

showing the different cross-linked food chains.
ENERGY FLOW
 2.5 Ecological Pyramids
•Ecologists use three different types of ecological
pyramids to illustrate ecosystems:

1. Pyramid of energy: represents

how much energy is available
in each trophic level
2. Pyramid of numbers: represents the actual
number of organisms present in each trophic
level
3. Pyramid of biomass: represents
the total mass of living things in
each trophic level
Ecosystem Productivity
• Primary Productivity: the speed of transforming sunlight
energy into chemical energy in the form of organic
matter by organisms autotroph
• Gross Primary Productivity (GPP): all organic matter
produced from photosynthesis in organisms autotroph
• Net Primary Productivity (NPP): the dry weight of the
organic material stored
PRODUCTIVITY EFFICIENCY
Ecosystem Productivity
• Secondary Productivity: the speed of changing the
chemical energy change organic material into energy
savings of new chemical by heterotrophic organisms
• Ecological Efficiency : the amount of energy that is
transferred from one trophic level to the next. This
follows the 10% rule, which states that roughly 10% of
the energy at one level will be available to be used by
the next level.
TROPHIC EFFICIENCY
PRIMARY SUCCESSION
SECONDARY SUCCESSION
BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES
CARBON CYCLE
PHOSPHORUS CYCLE
NITROGEN CYCLE
WATER CYCLE