Unit 2: Ecosystems

Learning objectives

● Defining ecosystems
● Structure of an ecosystem
● Functions of an ecosystem — Food chain, food webs, nutrient cycling,
energy flow.
● Energy flow in an ecosystem
● Ecological Pyramids
● Nutrient cycling
What is an ecosystem?
What is an ecosystem?

An ecosystem can be visualised as a functional unit of nature, where living

organisms interact among themselves and also with the surrounding physical
environment.

Wikipedia: An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and
the physical environment with which they interact.

Term ecosystem first used in 1935 by British ecologist Arthur Tansley.

Unit of nature that we try to study in the field of ECOLOGY

National Geographic: An ecosystem is a geographic area where plants, animals,

and other organisms, as well as weather and landscapes, work together to form a
bubble of life.
 Levels of organization
biome

biosphere
Types of Ecosystem

Ecosystem

Terrestrial Aquatic

Grasslands Forests Deserts

Rivers Ponds Lakes Seas & Oceans

Biomes of the world
Structure and components of an ecosystem

BIOTIC ABIOTIC
The biological community including, The quantity and distribution of
species number, biomass, life history, non-living material, such as nutrients,
and distribution in space. water, etc.

The biotic components are classified as The range of conditions of existence

the following three types: such as temperature, light.

● Producers Chemical factors include humidity of air,

● Consumers salinity of water, soil nutrients, oxygen
● Decomposers dissolved in water.
 Biotic
components

Producers Decomposers

Photoautotrophs Chemoautotrophs Consumers/Heterotrophs

What is a food chain?
Food chains

All those organisms which are

interlinked with each other
through food and energy. Food
chains represent feeding behavior
and flow of energy.

Types of Food Chains:

a) Grazing Food Chain.

b) Detritus food Chain.

c) Parasitic Food Chain.

Protozoan sp.

Flea
Bird
Trophic levels of the ecosystem

Decomposer

Tertiary Consumer

Secondary consumers

Primary consumers

Producers
Food chain and
Food Webs

Interconnections between
different food chains.

Intricate structure formed

when multiple food chains
are linked together.

Food chains are never

isolated and million of them
are interconnected.
Energy Flow In An Ecosystem

Unidirectional flow of energy from producers to consumers.

Laws of Thermodynamics

1. Energy can neither be created nor be destroyed, it can only be transformed from one form to
another.
2. This transformation of energy is not 100% efficient. During the energy transfer there is
degradation of energy from a concentrated form (mechanical, chemical, or electrical etc.) to a
dispersed form (heat).
10% rule of Energy Flow

Only ~ 10 % of energy stored

as biomass in a trophic level
is passed from one level to
the next.

This is known as “the 10

percent rule” and it limits
the number of trophic levels
an ecosystem can support.
Models of energy flow in ecosystem
Single Channel Energy flow Model
Y-shaped Energy flow model
Universal Energy Flow Model
Ecological Pyramids

Graphical representations of
(a) number,
(b) biomass and,
(c) energy of organisms at each
trophic level.

Trophic levels represent the

functional role of the species and
not a particular species in the
ecosystem.
Terrestrial ecosystem
Pyramid of numbers

Partially upright
Pyramid of biomass
Pyramid of Energy
Aquatic food chain

Pyramid of biomass

Pyramid of
Pyramid of
numbers
energy
Nutrient cycling
Water cycle
Carbon cycle
 Phosphorus cycle

Mining for
fertilizers