ORGANISMS AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT

Key Definitions:

Population: a group of organisms of one species, living in the same area, at the same time.
Community: all of the populations of different species in an ecosystem.
Ecosystem: a unit containing the community of organisms and their environment, interacting
together, e.g. a decomposing log, or a lake.
Habitat: The area where an organism lives.
Food Chain : A food chain shows the transfer of energy from one organism to the next, beginning
with a producer.
Food web: A food web is a network of interconnected food chains.
Producer: A producer is an organism that makes its own organic nutrients, usually using energy
from sunlight, through photosynthesis.
Consumer: A consumer is an organism that gets its energy from feeding on other organisms.
Herbivore: A herbivore is an animal that gets its energy by eating plants.
Carnivore: A carnivore is an animal that gets its energy by eating other animals.
Decomposer: A decomposer is an organism that gets its energy from dead or waste organic material.
Interdependence: Interdependence means the way in which living organisms depend on each other
in order to remain alive, grow and reproduce.

Energy flow

Nearly all living things depend on the Sun to provide energy. This is harnessed by photosynthesising
plants and the energy is then passed through food chains.

● With the exception of atomic energy and tidal power, all the energy released on Earth is
derived from sunlight.

● The energy released by animals comes, ultimately, from plants that they or their prey eat,
and the plants depend on sunlight for making their food.

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 ● Photosynthesis is a process in which light energy is trapped by plants and converted into
chemical energy (stored in molecules such as carbohydrates, fats and proteins).

● Since all animals depend, in the end, on plants for their food, they therefore depend
indirectly on sunlight.

● Eventually, through one process or another, all the chemical energy in organisms is
transferred to the environment.

Food Chains and Food webs:

Food Chains:

● A food chain shows the order of energy transfer between organisms.

● Food chain starts with producers, which are plants which convert light energy from the sun
to chemical energy.
● Energy is transferred between organisms in a food chain by ingestion.

● Organisms that feed on plants are called primary consumers (herbivores). They gain
nutrients from plants.
● Primary consumer is eaten by secondary consumer (carnivore).

● Consumers are classified as primary, secondary, tertiary or quaternary, depending on their

position in the food chain.
● The arrows used to link each organism to the next represent the direction of energy flow.
They always point towards the ‘next trophic level’, and away from the previous trophic
level.

Examples for Food chains:

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 1. Grass Grass hopper frog snake Eagle

2. Carrot rabbit fox lion

3. Corn rat owl

Food Web:

● A food web is a network of interconnected food chains

● Food webs are more realistic ways of showing connections between organisms within
an ecosystem as animals rarely exist on just one type of food source.

Example 1:

Example 2

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 ● Food webs give us a lot more information about the transfer of energy in an
ecosystem.
● They also show interdependence – how the change in one population can affect others
within the food web.
● For example, in the food web given in Example 2, if the population of insects
decreased:
o The population of grass would increase as there are now fewer species feeding
on them.
o The populations of frog and vole would decrease significantly as insects are
their only food source.
o The population of thrush would decrease slightly as they eat insects but also
have another food source to rely on (slugs).
● Most of the changes in populations of animals and plants happen as a result of human
impact – either by overharvesting of food species or by the introduction of foreign
species to a habitat.
● Due to interdependence, these can have long-lasting knock-on effects to organisms
throughout a food chain or web.
● Consumers can be at different trophic levels within the same food web as they may eat
both primary, secondary and / or tertiary consumers.
● The trophic level of an organism is its position in a food chain, food web or pyramid
of numbers or biomass.

Energy transfer:

Energy is transferred between trophic levels. There is a loss of energy at each trophic level
due to various reasons:

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 (i) Not all animal and plant material can be digested to gain energy. For example, fur,
bones, root.
(ii) Energy is lost through excretion and decay.
(iii) Energy is used for movement.
(iv) Energy is lost through the process of respiration as heat.
(v) In warm blooded animal (birds and mammals) maintain a standard blood
temperature – they lose heat to the environment.

Even plants do not make use of all the light energy available to them. This is because some
light:
● is reflected off shiny leaves

● is the wrong wavelength for chlorophyll to trap

● passes through the leaves without passing through any chloroplasts

● does not fall on the leaves.

On an average, about 90% of the energy is lost at each level in a food chain. This means that in
long food chains, very little of the energy entering the chain through the producer is available to
the top carnivore (only 10% energy is transferred). So there tend to be small numbers of top
carnivores. Consequently, top carnivores must eat a larger amount to gain enough energy for
survival. For this reason, there are usually not more than 5 trophic levels. The food chain below
shows how energy reduces through the chain. It is based on maize obtaining 100 units of energy.

maize 🡪 locust 🡪 lizard 🡪 snake

100 units 10 units 1 unit 0.1 unit

On shorter food chains, less energy is lost.

Pyramids of numbers, biomass and energy

A food pyramid shows the relative sizes of different components at the various trophic levels of
a food chain. There are three types of ecological pyramid we use: numbers, biomass and
energy.

In a food pyramid, each trophic level in a food chain is represented by a horizontal bar, with the
width of the bar representing the number of organisms, the amount of biomass or the amount of
energy available at that level. The base of the pyramid represents the producer; the second
level is the primary consumer; and so on.

Pyramid of numbers:

● A pyramid of numbers shows the relative number of organisms at each stage of a food chain.

Example 1: clover snail thrush hawk

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● Clover is a plant and it is the producer in this food chain. Its bar goes at the bottom of the
pyramid.
● Energy is lost to the surroundings as we go from one level to the next, so there are fewer
organisms at each level in this food chain.
● A lot of clover is needed to support the snail population.

● A thrush eats lots of snails, and a hawk eats lots of thrushes, so the population of hawks is
very small.

● Pyramids of numbers are not always pyramid-shaped.

● Sometimes it may be inverted.

● This is because the size of the organism is also important – one large organism, like
the oak tree in the pyramid above, contains enough energy to support many smaller
organisms (the insects)
● In this case, the pyramid of numbers is upside-down, as shown below.

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 Pyramid of biomass

● Sometimes a pyramid of numbers is not the best way to represent a food chain. In this
case a pyramid of biomass (the dry mass of an organism) is a better diagram to use. It
shows the total mass of organisms at each stage of a food chain.
● All producers have a higher biomass than the primary consumer, so a pyramid will
always be produced.
● The total energy (and biomass) present at a lower tier of the pyramid, must be greater
than the higher tiers in order to support the energy requirements of the subsequent
organisms.

Pyramid of Energy

● Pyramid of energy shows amount of energy trapped per unit time and area at each
stage of a food chain.
● A normal-shaped pyramid is always produced because there is a reduced amount of
energy at each successive level.

Nutrient cycles
The carbon cycle:

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 Most of the chemicals that make up living tissue contain carbon. When organisms die the
carbon is recycled so that it can be used by future generations.

Four main processes are involved:

(i) photosynthesis,
(ii) respiration,
(iii) decomposition
(iv) combustion.

Removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

Photosynthesis

● Green plants remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as a result of their photosynthesis.

● The carbon from the carbon dioxide is built first into a carbohydrate such as sugar. Some of this
is changed into starch or the cellulose of cell walls, and the proteins, pigments and other
compounds of a plant.
● When the plants are eaten by animals, the organic plant material is digested, absorbed and built
into the compounds making up the animals’ tissues.
● Thus, the carbon atoms from the plant become part of the animal.

Fossilisation

● Any environment that prevents rapid decay may produce fossils. The carbon in the dead
organisms becomes trapped and compressed and can remain there for millions of years.

● The carbon may form fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas. Some animals make
shells or exoskeletons containing carbon and these can become fossils.

Addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere

Respiration

● Plants and animals obtain energy by oxidising carbohydrates in their cells to carbon dioxide
and water. The carbon dioxide and water are excreted so the carbon dioxide returns once again
to the atmosphere.

Decomposition

● A crucial factor in carbon recycling is the process of decomposition, or decay. If it were not for
decay, essential materials would not be released from dead organisms.

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 ● When an organism dies, the enzymes in its cells, freed from normal controls, start to digest its
own tissues (auto-digestion).
● Finally, the decomposers, fungi and bacteria, arrive and invade the remaining tissues. These
saprophytes secrete extracellular enzymes into the tissues and reabsorb the liquid products of
digestion.
● When the micro-organisms themselves die, auto-digestion takes place, releasing the products
such as nitrates, sulfates, phosphates, etc. into the soil or the surrounding water to be taken up
again by the producers in the ecosystem.

Combustion (burning)

● When carbon-containing fuels such as wood, coal, petroleum and natural gas are burned, the
carbon is oxidised to carbon dioxide (C + O2 CO 2).
● The hydrocarbon fuels, such as coal and petroleum, come from ancient plants, which have only
partly decomposed over the millions of years since they were buried.
● Increased use of fossil fuels is contributing to an increase in the carbon dioxide content of the
atmosphere.
● In addition, mass deforestation is reducing the number of producers available to take carbon
dioxide out of the atmosphere by photosynthesis
● Burning the forest to clear the area for agriculture releasing more carbon dioxide into the
atmosphere.

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Water Cycle:

● Energy from the Sun heats the surface of the Earth.

● Plants release water vapour into the air through transpiration.

● Water evaporates from oceans, rivers, lakes and soil.

● The warm, moist air rises because it is less dense.

● Water vapour condenses into water droplets as it cools down, forming clouds.

● Water droplets get bigger and heavier they begin to fall as rain, snow and sleet
(precipitation), draining into streams, rivers, lakes and sea.
● Plant root take up water by osmosis.

● In addition, animals lose water to the environment through exhaling and sweating, and in
urine and faeces.

Nitrogen Cycle:

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●Nitrogen is another element which is key to all the organisms. Nitrogen is used to make
amino acids, ATP and DNA.
●Microorganisms are key to the nitrogen cycle as they help convert nitrogen to different forms
so that it can be used.
●Neither plants nor animals can absorb it from the air as N2 gas is very stable and the bonds
holding the nitrogen atoms together would need massive amounts of energy to break (the
two nitrogen atoms in a nitrogen molecule are held together by a triple covalent bond)
●However, there are two ways it can be taken out of the air and converted into something
easier to absorb:
o Nitrogen fixing bacteria found ‘free living’ in soil and also in the root nodules of
certain plants (peas, beans, clover – leguminous plants) take N2 gas and change it
into nitrates in the soil
o Lightning can ‘fix’ N2 gas, splitting the bond between the two atoms and turning
them into nitrous oxides like N2O and NO2 that dissolve in rainwater and ‘leach’
into the soil
●Plants absorb the nitrates they find in the soil and use the nitrogen in them to make proteins

●Nitrogen present in these molecules are passed through the food chain via feeding.

●Waste (urine and faeces) from animals sends nitrogen back into the soil as ammonium
compounds (the urea in urine contains nitrogen).
●When the animals and plants die, they decay and all the proteins inside them are broken down
into ammonium compounds and put back into the soil by decomposers.
●Nitrifying living in the soil, which use the ammonia from excretory products and decaying
organisms as a source of energy. In the process of getting energy from ammonia, called
nitrification, the bacteria produce nitrates.
●The ‘nitrite’ bacteria oxidise ammonium compounds to nitrites (NH4 NO 2 ).

●The ‘Nitrate’ bacteria oxidise nitrites to nitrates (NO2 NO 3 ).

●Although plant roots can take up ammonia in the form of its compounds, they take up nitrates
more readily, so the nitrifying bacteria increase the fertility of the soil by making nitrates
available to the plants.
●Denitrifying bacteria are bacteria that obtain their energy by breaking down nitrates to
nitrogen gas, which then escapes from the soil into the atmosphere. This decomposition
happens in anaerobic condition.

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 Population size

A population is a group of organisms of one species, living in the same area at the same time.
The rate of growth of a population depends on:

1. Food supply – abundant food will enable organisms to breed more successfully to
produce more offspring; shortage of food can result in death or force emigration,
reducing the population.
2. Predation- if there is heavy predation of a population, the breeding rate may not be
sufficient to produce enough organisms to replace those eaten, so the population will
drop in numbers. There tends to be a time lag in population size change for predators
and their pray: as predator numbers increase, prey number drops; and as predator
numbers drop, prey numbers rise again (unless there are other limiting factors).
3. Disease – this is a particular problem in large populations, because disease can spread
easily from one individual to another. Epidemics can reduce population sizes very
rapidly.

Human Population Growth:

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● About 20 years ago, the human population was increasing at the rate of 2% a year, this means
the world population was doubling every 35 years.
● This doubles for demand for food, water, space and other resources.

● Infant mortality: the death rate for children less than 1 year old.
● Life expectancy: the average age to which a newborn baby can be expected to live.
● Fertility rate: the average number of children a woman would have.
● Agricultural development and economic expansion led to improvements in nutrition, housing
and sanitation, and to clean water supplies.
● These improvements reduced the incidence of infectious diseases in the general population,
and better-fed children could resist these infections when they did meet them.
● The social changes probably affect the population growth more than did the discovery of new
drugs or improved medical techniques.
● Longer and better education

● Application of family planning method: either natural methods of birth control or use of
contraceptives is much more common.
● Because of these techniques – particularly immunisation -diphtheria, tuberculosis and polio
are now rare, and by 1977 smallpox had been wiped out by the World Health Organization
(WHO)’s vaccination campaign.

World Population growth

Population growth in an environment with limited resources

When a limiting factor influences population growth, a sigmoid (S-shaped) curve is created. You
need to be able to place the terms lag, log, stationary and death phase on a graph of population
growth.

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Lag phase – the new population takes time to settle and mature before breeding begins.
When this happens, a doubling of small numbers does not have a big impact on the total
populations size, so the line of the graph rises only slowly with time.

Log (exponential) phase – there are no limiting factors. Rapid breeding in an increasing
population causes a significant in numbers. A steady doubling in numbers per unit of time
produces a straight line.

Stationary phase – limiting factors, such as shortage of food, cause the rate of reproduction
to slow down and there are more deaths in the population. When the birth rate and death rate
are equal, the line of the graph becomes horizontal.

Death phase - as food runs out, more organisms die than are born, so the number in the
population drops.

Population growth in the absence of limiting factors

If there are no limiting factors, there will be no stationary or death phase – the log phase will
continue upwards, instead of the line levelling off. This has happened with human population
growth. Human population size has increased exponentially because of improvements on
food supply and the development of medicine to control diseases. Infant mortality has
decreased, while lifer expectancy has increased.

Population pyramids

A population pyramid, also called an "age-gender-pyramid", is a graphical illustration that

shows the distribution of various age groups in a population (typically that of a country or
region of the world), which forms the shape of a pyramid when the population is growing.
Population numbers are always on the x-axis and age groups on the y-axis. The overall stage
can depict the stage of development of the country at a particular time.

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● The area of each box represents the numbers of individuals in that age group.

● Pyramid (a) is a bottom-heavy pyramid as there are more young individuals than old
ones.
● This indicates that population is growing as birth rate is greater than death rate. Age
pyramids of developing countries will be like this.
● Pyramid (b) is a stable population. Birth rate is almost equal to death rate.

● Age pyramid of France is an example for such a stable population.

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