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ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
 • The representation of a food
chain in the form of a pyramid is
called ecological pyramid.
• The base of a pyramid represents
producers (first trophic level). The
apex represents tertiary or top
level consumer.
• Ecological pyramids are 3 types:
✔ Pyramid of number
✔ Pyramid of biomass
✔ Pyramid of energy
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ECOLOGICAL a) PYRAMID OF NUMBER
PYRAMIDS
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E.g. grassland ecosystem.

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ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS b) PYRAMID

OF BIOMASS

It shows a sharp decrease in

 biomass at higher trophic
levels.

Inverted pyramid of biomass

Small standing crop of
phytoplankton supports large
standing crop of zooplankton.
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ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS c)
PYRAMID OF ENERGY
• Primary producers convert only 1% of the
energy in
the sunlight available to them into NPP.
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ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS

• Any calculations of energy content, biomass, or

numbers has to include all organisms at that trophic
 level.
• A trophic level represents a functional level, not a
species as such. A given species may occupy more
than one trophic level in the same ecosystem at the
same time.
E.g. A sparrow is a primary consumer when it eats
seeds, fruits, peas, and a secondary consumer
when it eats insects and worms.
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ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS

In most ecosystems, all the

 pyramids are upright, i.e.,
producers are more in number and
biomass than the herbivores, and
herbivores are more in number
and biomass than the carnivores.
Also energy at a lower trophic
level is always more than at a
higher level.

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ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
 Examples for inverted pyramids
✔ Insects feeding on a big tree.
✔ Pyramid of biomass in sea is inverted because the biomass of
fishes far exceeds that of phytoplankton.

• Pyramid of energy is always upright, because when energy flows from a trophic
 level to the next trophic level, some energy is always lost as heat at each step.
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ECOLOGICAL LIMITATIONS
PYRAMIDS

⮚ It does not take into account the same

species belonging to two or more
trophic levels.
⮚ It assumes a simple food chain that
almost never exists in nature. It does
not accommodate a food web.
⮚ Saprophytes are not included in
ecological pyramids even though they
 play a vital role in the ecosystem.

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ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION
Climax community
• It is a gradual, slow
and predictable change
in the species
composition of an area
 leading to a climax colonize an area and
community (community increase in number,
that is in equilibrium whereas other species
with the environment). decline and disappear.
• In this, some species

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ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION
Pioneer
species
• The
entire
 sequences of
communities that successively
change in an area are called sere.
Individual transitional communities
are termed seral stages (seral
communities).
• The species invading a bare area are
Climax
called pioneer species.
community

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ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION
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 Climax

• In the successive seral stages, there is

Pioneer a change in species diversity, increase
species in number of species and organisms
and an increase in the total biomass.
• The present day communities are
due to succession of millions of years.
Succession and evolution were parallel
processes.
 Succession is 2 types:

community n succession

Primary Secondary
successio
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ECOLOGICAL PRIMARY SUCCESSION

SUCCESSION
• The succession taking place in areas where no living organisms ever existed.
• E.g. newly cooled lava, bare rock, newly created pond or reservoir. • To
establish a biotic community, fertile soil must be formed. So primary
succession is a very slow process.
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• The succession taking place in an area after the existed organisms are lost.
• E.g. abandoned farm lands, burned or cut forests, lands that are flooded. •
Since some soil or sediment is present, succession is faster than primary
succession.
• The species that invade depend on the nature of soil, availability of water etc.
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ECOLOGICAL
 SUCCESSION
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• In succession, changes in vegetation affect food & shelter of animals. Thus,
succession leads to change in number and types of animals &
 decomposers.
• Natural or human induced disturbances (deforestation, fire etc.) convert a
particular seral stage to an earlier stage. They create new conditions that
encourage some species and discourage or eliminate other species.
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ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION SUCCESSION IN PLANTS

• Based on the nature of the

habitat, plant succession is 2
types:
⮚ Hydrarch
⮚ Xerarch

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ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION
✔ Hydrarch succession: It takes place in wetter areas. It progresses from hydric to
mesic conditions.
✔ Xerarch succession: It takes place in dry areas. It progresses from xeric to mesic
conditions.
Xerarch

succession

Hydrarch succession

Hence, both hydrarch & xerarch successions lead to medium water conditions
(mesic, the climax community).
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 Primary succession on rocks (Xerophytic habitat)

• Here, Lichens are pioneer species. They

secrete acids to dissolve rock, helping in
weathering & soil formation.
• Climax community (Forest) remains stable
if the environment remains unchanged.

Small plants like

amount of soil)
Bigger
plants
Lichens (pioneers) Forest
bryophytes (they (mesophytic)
need only small
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ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION SUCCESSION IN PLANTS

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Primary succession in

12435
 community is
7

a forest.
Rooted

6 Free

Phyto
Rooted
• With time, the
water body is
converted into
land.
• Climax
 plants Reed
(forest)
swamp

floating angio
sperms
plankton floating meadow Scrub
Trees
(pioneers) plants
submerged Marsh

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