Organisms

and their
environment
What you will Nitrogen cycle
learn in this
chapter Carbon cycle

Food chains & food webs

Energy transfer Water cycle

Pyramid of numbers Population growth

Pyramid of biomass (graph and diagram)
What do you know about
ecosystem?
 Ecosystem is
everything, including
living and non-living
things that interact
with each other within
a certain environment
Ecology is the field that
studies it
Population
A group of organisms of one species,
living in the same area in the same time

Community
All of the population of all the different
species in an ecosystem.

Habitat
The place where an organism lives.

Ecosystem
A unit containing all of the organisms in
a community an their environment,
interacting together.
Role of organisms in the ecosystem

Producer Consumer Decomposer

makes its own organic nutrients, gets its energy by feeding on gets its energy from dead or
usually using energy from sunlight, other organisms waste organic material
through photosynthesis

Trophic level is the position of an organism in a food chain, food

web or pyramid of biomass or numbers
Division of consumers

primary secondary tertiary

consumer consumer consumer
feed on producer feed on primary feed on secondary
(plants) consumer consumer

herbivore carnivore carnivore

What is a food chain anyway?
Food chain is a diagram showing energy flow
from one organism to the next, beginning
with a producer.
Meanwhile, food web is a network of
interconnected food chain
Does consumers have the
same amount of energy as
producers?
 NO!
Only 10% of the energy is
passed from one trophic
level to another
As it goes from one organism to the next, some
of the energy is lost along the way.....

grasshopper flycatcher

the grasshopper may eat almost all of the the further you go along a food chain, the
parts of plant above ground, but it will not less energy is available for each successive
eat the roots. So not all of the energy in the groups of organisms
plant is transferred to the grasshopper
Several other ways the energy is lost

When an organism uses glucose and other

organic compounds for respiration, some of
the energy released from the glucose is lost
as heat energy to the environment.

When an animal eats another organism.

enzyme in its digestive system break down
most of the large nutrient molecules. But not
all of the nutrient molecules are digested
and absorbed. Some just past through the
alimentary canal and eventually lost from the
body in the faeces.
Food chain can also be describe by pyramids

Consumers
(Apex Predators)

There is less energy

Consumers available as you go up
(Carnivores)
the trophic levels, so
y
e rg

there are fewer

En

Consumers
(Herbivores) organisms at each level

Producers
 Pyramid of Pyramid of
numbers VS biomasss

Shows the relative

quantity of biomass at
The size of each trophic each trophic level
level represents the
numbers of organisms takes the size of
organism into account
does not take the size of
organism into account Biomass
the total quantity or weight of
organisms in a given area or
volume.
Inverted

Ideal
Which is the most efficient sort
of food for a farmer to grow,
and for us to eat?
The nearer to the beginning of the food chain we feed, the
more energy there is available for us.

This is why our staple foods, like wheats, rice and

potatoes are plants
When we eat products from animals (eggs, cheese, milk, etc.)
there is less energy available for us from the original energy
provided by the sun.

It would be more energy efficient in principle to eat the grass

in a field, rather than to let cattle eat it, and then to eat them.
 Carbon

Nutrient Cycle Nitrogen

Water
 Carbon cycle (1)

When plant photosynthesise,

carbon atoms from carbon
dioxide become part of
glucose or starch molecules in
the plant.

Some of the glucose is then

broken down by the plant in
respiration, the carbon
becomes part of a carbon
dioxide again.
Carbon cycle (2)
Some of the carbon in the plant
will be eaten by animals. The
animals respire, releasing some
of it back into the air as carbon
dioxide .

When the plant or animal dies,

decomposers will feed on them.
The carbon becomes part of the
decomposers’ bodies. When they
respire, they release carbon
dioxide into the air again.
Why do living organisms
need nitrogen?
Amino acid

Nitrogen is needed for making amino

acids which are the building blocks
of protein.
Nitrogen cycle

There is plenty of nitrogen in

the atmosphere, but these
molecules are very inert,
which means that they will
not readily react with other
substances.

For it to be able to be used by

plants and animals, it must be
changed into a more reactive
form, such as ammonia (NH 3 )
and nitrates (NO -3 ).
 Several ways of nitrogen fixation

Lightning Artificial fertilisers Nitrogen-fixing

bacteria
Makes nitrogen gas Nitrogen and hydrogen Lives in soil and root nodules
form nitrogen oxides can be formed into in plants like peas, beans and
with oxygen. ammonia by an clover. The most known
industrial chemical species is called Rhizobium.
They dissolve in rain and process.
are washed into the soil, They use nitrogen from the
where they form They are then used to air spaces in the soil and
nitrate make fertilisers. combine it with other
substances to make
ammonium ions.
 Nitrogen cycle
Nitrogen fixation Nitrification Denitrification
Conversion of inert Conversion of
(unreactive form) ammonium ions into
Conversion of
nitrogen gas into a compounds into the
nitrate and nitrite
more reactive form, easily absorbable
to gaseous forms of
such as nitrate ions form of nitrogen
nitrogen
or ammonia that is nitrates and
nitrites
+
NH 4
- - -
N2 NO2 NH +
NO2 NO2 N2
- 4 (gas)
(gas)
NO 3 NO - NO -
3 3
Nitrogen forms
Water Cycle

= Rain
Population Size
The size of a population
depends on how many
individuals leave and
enter the population.

Individuals who leave

either die or migrate to
another population.

Individuals who enter

are born or migrate
from elsewhere.
What would happen if birth
rate is lower than death
rate?
The population
will decrease
or decline
 Factors affecting population growth

increasing
yeast
Empty
population
nutrient
agar plate

Hour 0 After a few hours

Experiment on population sizes have been done on

bacteria and yeast, because they reproduce quickly
and are easy to grow.
Population growth curve
Population growth curve
Lag phase
Start of a population growth
curve where the population
remains small and grows very
slowly

Log/exponential phase
Population growth at its
maximum rate (very rapid)

birth rate > death rate

exponential grow:
the cells divide to 2, 4, 8 and so on
Population growth curve

Stationary phase
Population remains roughly
constant

In this phase, cells compete

with each other for food

They also produce ethanol

that are poisonous to them

While half of the cells still

reproduce, the other half are
dying off in the same rate

birth rate = death rate

Population growth curve

Death phase
final stage of population
growth curve

population falls

birth rate < death rate

What factors limit the
growth of population?
 Limiting factor may exist as:
Limiting factors of
population growth something that is necessary for
population growth, but in short
supply.

example
Limiting factor food scarcity population decline

the factor that limits

population growth even if
every thing else would allow threats to the sustainability of a
it to increase population.

(e.g.: diseases, The Black Death that

occurs in the 1340s reduced Europe’s
population by 40%)
Predator-prey relationship
 Predator-prey relationship
The population of predator
may be affected by its prey.

The numbers go up and down

but the average population
size stay the same over many
years.

snowshoe hare arctic fox

pop. increase pop. increase

arctic fox snowshoe hare

pop. decrease pop. decrease
 Age pyramids
a diagram showing the relative numbers of individuals
of different ages in a population

Age
0-14
15-44
45-85+

Which of these graphs shows a growing population?

 Age pyramids
Increasing population Decreasing population

Age
0-14
15-44
45-85+

More young individuals More old individuals than

than old ones young ones
birth rate > death rate birth rate < death rate
Age pyramids

Zero growth
Same amount of old and
young individuals

birth rate = death rate

 Human Population
From 300 years ago until now, the world population is still steadily increasing.

Improvement in sanitation and hygiene

2 reasons
Increase in food supply
 Organisms and their environment

End of topic!

Alba Castro