Ecosystems: Structural & Functional aspects

Terminology

• Environment: Surroundings of an
organism where they live
• Ecology: Study of organism in
relation to the surroundings in which
they live
• Autecology: Study of ecology of
single species
• Synecology: Study of ecology of
community of organisms
 Basics of Ecosystem
• Term coined by Arthur Tansley in 1935
• Ecosystem : all living organisms (biotic) in a
particular area and associated physico-chemical
environment (abiotic)
• Community:All organisms inhabiting a particular
ecosystem constitutes
• Biotic components includes producers,
consumers, decomposers)
• Abiotic components includes air, soil, Water,
sunlight, climate, topography (height & shape of
land) etc.
• Biosphere
– The sum total of all the ecosystems on the
planet
• Biome
– Larger Areas of predominant flaura & fauna
• Ecotone
ECOTONE
– Areas of transition between two different
patches of lands such as forest or grasslands
 Types of Ecosystems

Natural Ecosystem Artificial Ecosystem

e.g. Aquarium, Garden, spacecraft

Terrestrial Ecosystem Aquatic Ecosystem

e.g. Forest e.g. Ocean
Lentic ecosystem: ecosystem of lake, pond
Lotic ecosystem: ecosystem of river, stream
Depending upon the size of ecosystem
 Nanoecosystem – Drop of Water
 Microecosystem – Pond
 Macroecosystem – Forest
 Megaecosystem – Ocean
 What sustain life on earth??

• The one-way flow of energy

• The cycling of matter/ nutrients
• Gravity
– Allows the earth to hold onto its atmosphere
– Causes the downward movement of nutrients
Uni-directional flow of energy
 Ecosystem Structure: the living components of an ecosystem

• Producer (autotrophs): make food e.g. plants, algae

• Consumer (heterotrophs): eat other organisms e.g. animals
• Decomposer: eat dead organic matter; bacteria and fungi
Classes of Consumers
 Primary consumer (Herbivores)– eat plants
 Secondary consumer (Carnivores)– meat eaters; eat
herbivores
 Tertiary consumers– feed on carnivores
 Omnivores – eat plants/animals
•Food chain
– Path of energy exchange/A series of steps in which
organisms transfer energy by eating and being
eaten.
– Food webs
– Interconnected feeding relationships in an ecosystem
•Trophic level
– Feeding relationships
– Individuals position
•Recyclers of biosphere: Decomposers- these are
fungi/bacteria which decompose organic matter and
convert it into inorganic matter that can be used as
food by producers. Thus recycling the matter.
 Energy flow in an ecosystem
The amount of energy available to the organisms at each trophic level decreases as one
moves up the food chain since
• 90% energy is lost as heat
• organisms use energy to sustain themselves
Only approximately 10% of the energy is transferred to the next trophic level-
Lindemann’s ten percent law for transfer of energy from one trophic level to another
• Energy at n(th) level =(energy given by
sun)/(10)^(n+1).
• Energy at n(Th) level =(energy given by
plant)/(10)^(n-1)
 Energy flow in an ecosystem
• Primary Productivity
• Secondary productivity

• GPP (Gross Primary

Productivity)

• NPP (Net Primary

Productivity)

• Rs (Respiration)

• NPP = GPP – Rs
• Biomass: Reflection of
Secondary productivity
• Primary productivity: Production of organic
compound by atmospheric CO2
• Secondary productivity: Productivity of
heterotrophs
• GPP (Gross Primary Productivity): Rate at which
producers capture and store chemical energy
(biomass) in a given time
• NPP (Net Primary Productivity): GPP-Respiration
• Biomass: Reflection of primary productivity
 Ecological pyramid
• Graphical representations of trophic structures in an
ecosystem
• Most ecological pyramids are large at the base and narrow
at the top.
• Types of Pyramids:
Pyramid of Biomass Less Energy
Pyramid of Energy
Pyramid of Numbers

More Energy
Set of conditions
within which an organism What is A Niche?
can maintain a viable
population

Multi-dimensional light intensity ecological

niche
with as many
dimensions as there
okay
are limiting conditions temperature
salinity
 Habitat & Niche
• Habitat: Place where a population (or
an individual organism) typically
lives
– Characterized by physical conditions,
e.g.salinity or temperature
• Ecological niche:The sum total of an
organisms use of biotic & abiotic
resources in its environment with
unique ecological role
• Fundamental Niche
full potential range of physical, chemical
and biological factors a species could use if
there were no competition
• Realized Niche
The portion of the fundamental niche that a
species actually occupies due to competition
• Residence Time
– Length of time taken for a nutrient to be completely decomposed or recycled in
ecosystem
• Nutrient Use Efficiency (NUE) : Yield per unit input
– Selective advantages in low nutrient conditions
NUE = A / L
A – the nutrient productivity (dry matter production per unit nutrient
in the plant)
L – nutrient requirements per unit of plant biomass
Types of relationships – Nutrient limitations
• A - Production - independent of resource
availability
• B - Production - a linear function of
resource availability
• C - At some point, another resource
becomes limiting
 Nutrient Pools and Nutrient Flux
• Nutrient pool (reservoir)– a specific component or
compartment where a nutrient resides
– Can be a single organism, a population, a community, a
trophic level, and an abiotic feature (e.g., lake, soil,
atmosphere, etc.)
• Nutrient flux – the rate of exchange (e.g., unit of
material per unit time) of nutrients between pools
Cycling of nutrients
 Nutrients…what are they?
• The basic chemical building blocks of all life
• Recycled in a living system.
• Key nutrients - 95% of all living matter.
 Bioaccumulation & Biomagnification
• Bioaccumulation:
Increase in concentration of a Amount
pollutant from the Year Remaini
environment to the first ng
organism in a food chain 0 100 kg
• Biomagnification: 15 50 kg
Increase in concentration of a 30 25 kg
pollutant from one link in a
45 12.5 kg
food chain to another
• DDT has a half-life of 15 60 6.25 kg
years 75 3.13 kg
• DDT has brought in the "age 90 1.56 kg
of resistance" - a high price 105 0.78 kg
to pay to have no mosquitoes.
120 0.39 kg
 Gaia Hypothesis
• James Lovelock, Lynn Margulis - 1970
• Our planet functions as a single organism that maintains
conditions necessary for its survival.
• Single super organism- All life on earth interacts with
physical factors forming a complex system.
• Earth is a self-regulating system
• Behaves like a human body, homeostasis
• Gaia, therefore, can be viewed as a study of the
physiology of the Earth, where the oceans and rivers are
the Earth's blood, the atmosphere is the Earth's lungs, the
land is the Earth's bones, and the living organisms are
the Earth's senses.