MILLER/SPOOLMAN

LIVING IN THE ENVIRONMENT 17TH

Ecosystems: What
Are They and How
Do They Work?
What makes earth so special?

• Third planet from the

sun
• Known as the blue
planet
• Living planet
GOLDILOCKS’ ZONE

• Earth is found in the

goldilocks’ zone
GOLDILOCKS’ ZONE
• Earth is found in the
goldilocks’ zone
• refers to the habitable
zone around a star
where the
temperature is just
right - not too hot and
not too cold
GOLDILOCKS’ ZONE

MERCURY VENUS EARTH

TOO HOT TOO COLD

 What Keeps Us and Other
Organisms Alive?
• Concept 3-1A The four major components of the
earth’s life-support system are the following
• atmosphere (air),
• hydrosphere (water),
• geosphere (rock, soil, and sediment),
• 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.
 Atmosphere
• The atmosphere is a
thin spherical
envelope of gases
surrounding the
earth’s surface.
 Atmosphere
• The earth’s atmosphere acts
like an umbrella and a
blanket
• Ozone (O3) gas to filter out
about 95% of the sun’s
harmful ultraviolet (UV)
radiation. This global
sunscreen allows life to exist
on the surface of the planet.
 Atmosphere
• The earth’s atmosphere acts
like an umbrella and a
blanket
• Ozone (O3) gas to filter out
about 95% of the sun’s
harmful ultraviolet (UV)
radiation. This global
sunscreen allows life to exist
on the surface of the planet.
 Hydrosphere
• The hydrosphere is
made up of all of the
water on or near the
earth’s surface.
 Geosphere
• The geosphere
consists of the
earth’s intensely hot
core, a thick mantle
composed mostly of
rock, and a thin
outer crust.
 Biosphere
• The biosphere consists of the
parts of the atmosphere,
hydrosphere, and geosphere
where life is found.
• An important goal of
environmental science is to
understand the key
interactions that occur within
this thin layer of air, water,
soil, and organisms and how
we interact with the
biosphere.
 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
• Because the earth does not get significant inputs
of matter from space, its essentially fixed supply
of nutrients must be continually recycled to
support life, in keeping with the chemical cycling
• Gravity holds earths atmosphere
• allows the planet to hold onto its atmosphere and helps to
enable the movement and cycling of chemicals through
air, water, soil, and organisms.
 Ecologists Study Interactions in
Nature
• Ecology: is the science that focuses on how
organisms interact with one another and with
their nonliving environment of matter and
energy.
• Ecologists study interactions within and
among five of these levels—organisms,
populations, communities, ecosystems, and
the biosphere.
 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
 Ecosystems Have Living and
Nonliving Components
• Abiotic
• Water
• Air
• Nutrients
• Rocks
• Heat
• Solar energy
• Biotic
• Living and once
living
 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.
Producers and Consumers Are the Living
Components of Ecosystems
• Producers, autotrophs
• Photosynthesis:
• CO2 + H2O + sunlight → glucose + oxygen
• Chemosynthesis
• Consumers, heterotrophs
• Primary consumers = herbivores
• Secondary consumers
• Tertiary consumers
• Carnivores, Omnivores
Producers

Fig. 3-7a, p. 59
Consumers

Fig. 3-8a, p. 60
Producers and Consumers Are the Living
Components of Ecosystems
• Decomposers
• Consumers that release nutrients
• Bacteria
• Fungi

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

Fig. 3-9a, p. 61
Detritivores and Decomposers

Fig. 3-10, p. 61
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
• Alcohol fermentation
• Lactic acid from activities
Ecosystem Components

Fig. 3-11, p. 62
 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
 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.
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
A Food Chain

Fig. 3-12, p. 63
 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
A Food Web

Fig. 3-13, p. 64
Fig. 3-13, p. 64
 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
Pyramid of Energy Flow

Fig. 3-14, p. 65
 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
 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
 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
Estimated Annual Average NPP in Major Life Zones
and Ecosystems

Fig. 3-15, p. 66
 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
 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.
 Nutrients Cycle in the Biosphere

• The elements and compounds that make up

nutrients move continually through air, water,
soil, rock, and living organisms within
ecosystems, as well as in the biosphere in
cycles called nutrient cycles, or
biogeochemical cycles
• Hydrologic, Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Sulfur
• Nutrients may remain in a reservoir for a period of
time
 Water Cycles through the
Biosphere
• The hydrologic cycle, or water cycle,
collects, purifies, and distributes the
earth’s fixed supply of water: three
major processes
• Evaporation
• Precipitation
• Transpiration
 Water Cycles through the
Biosphere
1. The sun powers the water cycle. Incoming solar
energy causes evaporation, or the conversion of
water from liquid to vapor from the earth’s oceans,
lakes, rivers, soil, and plants.
2. This water vapor rises into the atmosphere, where it
condenses into droplets, and
3. gravity then draws the water back to the earth’s
surface as precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, and dew).
The hydrologic cycle can be viewed as a cycle of natural
renewal of water quality—an important and free
ecosystem service.
 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
 Water Cycles through the
Biosphere

• Alteration of the hydrologic cycle by humans

• First, we withdraw freshwater from rivers, lakes,
and aquifers, sometimes at rates faster than
natural processes can replace it.
• Second, we clear vegetation from land for
agriculture, mining, road building, and other
activities, and cover much of the land with
buildings, concrete, and asphalt.
• Third, we drain and fill wetlands for farming and
urban development.
Hydrologic Cycle Including Harmful Impacts
of Human Activities

Fig. 3-16, p. 67
 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
Glaciers Store Water

Fig. 3-17, p. 68
Water Erodes Rock in Antelope Canyon

Fig. 3-18, p. 69
 Carbon Cycle Depends on
Photosynthesis and Respiration
• Link between photosynthesis in producers and
respiration in producers, consumers, and
decomposers
• Carbon is the basic building block of the
carbohydrates, fats, proteins, DNA, and other
organic compounds necessary for life.
• Carbon dioxide affects the temperature of the
earth’s atmosphere through the greenhouse
effect and thus plays a major role in
determining the earth’s climate.
 Carbon Cycle Depends on
Photosynthesis and Respiration
• Carbon is cycled through the biosphere by a
combination of photosynthesis by producers,
which remove CO2 from the air and water,
and aerobic respiration by producers,
consumers, and decomposers, which adds CO2
in the atmosphere.
 Carbon Cycle Depends on
Photosynthesis and Respiration
• In only a few hundred years, we have
extracted and burned huge quantities of fossil
fuels that took millions of years to form and
added large quantities of CO2 to the
atmosphere, thus altering the carbon cycle.
• Another way in which we alter the cycle is by
clearing carbon-absorbing vegetation from
many forests, especially tropical forests, faster
than it can grow back.
Natural Capital: Carbon Cycle with Major Harmful
Impacts of Human Activities

Fig. 3-19, p. 70
 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
Increase in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, 1960-2009

Supplement 9, Fig 14
 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
 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. Add excess nitrates to bodies of water.
This can cause excessive growth of algae
that can disrupt aquatic systems.
Nitrogen Cycle in a Terrestrial Ecosystem with Major
Harmful Human Impacts

Fig. 3-20, p. 71
 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
Human Input of Nitrogen into the Environment

Supplement 9, Fig 16
 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
Impacts

Fig. 3-21, p. 73
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
 Sulfur Cycles through the
Biosphere
• Sulfur is 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
Natural Capital: Sulfur Cycle with Major Harmful
Impacts of Human Activities

Fig. 3-22, p. 74
 Sulfur dioxide
in atmosphere

Sulfuric acid
Burning Refining and Sulfate
Smelting deposited
coal fossil fuels
Sulfur in
as acid rain
Dimethyl
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
 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.