Concept of Ecosystem by Dr Sonali Patle

Knowing organism, species, population, community and then

Ecosystem
• Living things need a place to live and grow.
• An ecosystem is formed by the interactions between all living and
non-living things
• How do living and non-living things interact in an environment?

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 Concept

Living things need

a place to live
and grow.

Plants grow where

Birds live in trees
Fish live in water. there is soil, water
and fly in the air.
and sun.

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Ecosystem
• the system resulting from the integration of all the living and non
living factors of the environment.” : A.G. Tansley (1935)

• “An ecosystem is a natural system consisting of all plants, animals and

microorganisms (biotic factors) in an area functioning together with
all the non-living physical (abiotic) factors of the environment”.
: Christopherson (1997)

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Components of an Ecosystem
BIOTIC
ABIOTIC COMPONENTS
COMPONENTS
Sunlight( duration, intensity) Primary producers
Physical Factors Temperature Consumers
Annual rainfall Herbivores
Water and Soil
Carnivores
Essential nutrients
Chemical Factors Omnivores
C,N,P,K,H,O,S
Detritivores
Fats, cbh, prot
All of these vary over
space/time
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BIOTIC components
• The biotic components of an ecosystem can be classified according to
their mode of energy acquisition.

• In this type of classification, there are:

Autotrophs and Heterotrophs

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Abiotic components:
ABIOTIC components:
• Solar energy provides practically all the energy for ecosystems.

• Inorganic substances, e.g., sulfur, boron, tend to cycle through

ecosystems.

• Organic compounds, such as proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, and

other complex molecules, form a link between biotic and abiotic
components of the system.
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 Interaction of Biotic &
Abiotic Components

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 • Producers, consumers, and decomposers
form a food web
• Energy and nutrients flow from the
environment through the producers to the
consumers and finally to the
decomposers.
• Decomposers complete the breakdown of
organic nutrients and return inorganic
nutrients to the soil or water, where they
are available for reuse.

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Ecological Pyramid:

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Concept: The 10% Rule

Tertia
ry
Consu
mer
Secondary
Consumers

Primary Consumers

Producer
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Diversity and Variation

• The biosphere comprises of a complex collections of innumerable

organisms, known as the Biodiversity, which constitute the vital life
support for survival of human race.
• Biodiversity is the variety of all life forms: the different plants, animals
and micro-organisms, their genes and the ecosystems of which they
are a part

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 DISTRIBUTION OF BIODIVERSITY

Flora and fauna diversity depends on-

Climate
Altitude
Soils
Presence of other species
 Most of the biodiversity concentrated in Tropical region.

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• Most prokaryotes are unicellular or colonial, though multicellular forms also exist
• Reproduce through simple cell division
• Prokaryotes include heterotrophs, photoautotrophs, and chemoautotrophs
• Depend upon changes in the environment
• Because of this variability, bacterial taxonomy relies heavily on comparisons of DNA sequences and the
composition of cell walls and membranes

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 Distribution of Microorganisms
Microorganisms include:
1. Bacteria
2. Fungi (yeasts and molds)
Bacteria
 The experiments of Louis Pasteur , Robert Koch and
3. Microscopic Algae others in the late 1800s established the importance of
microbes to humans
4. Protozoa
5. Viruses, Viroid, Prions
(Non-living infectious
agents)

Super kingdom Prokarya: prokaryotes; lack nuclei and other membrane-enclosed organelles; reproduction by
several types of fission or budding; DNA-level recombination independent of reproduction

Kingdom Bacteria (Monera): circular DNA without protein; unicellular, multicellular, single or branched filaments; all major
types of metabolism; more than 10,000 species described; two major groups
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Eubacteria
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 Cocci Bacilli Spirochetes

Figure: The three most common shapes of bacterial cells.

• Many prokaryotes are autotrophs. They are important primary producers in lakes and oceans.
• Other bacteria are useful as the source of antibiotics and other compounds that are difficult to make
artificially.
• Although some bacteria can cause human diseases such as skin infections, strep throat, rheumatic
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Growth of fungi:
• Heterotrophic , eukaryotic organisms with filamentous / tubular
structures; hypha
• unicellular or multicellular
• multicellular and produce filamentous, microscopic structures
are frequently called molds, whereas yeasts are unicellular
fungi.

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• found indoors and outdoors
• part of the natural environment and play an important role in
the environment by breaking down and digesting organic
material, such as dead leaves into simpler compounds
• grow in places with a lot of moisture, such as around leakages
in walls, roofs, windows, or pipes, or where there has been
flooding

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 Nutrient Cycles

• Chemical elements in ecosystems are limited, and those essential for life must be recycled
• Organisms absorb and release carbon, oxygen, and nitrogen as gases (CO2, O2, and N2).
• Gets recycled in the environment. Solid elements, such as phosphorus (P) and sulfur
• (S), are less mobile
• Three of the most important nutrient cycles are the carbon, nitrogen, and
• water cycles.
• The law of conservation of matter limits the supply of nutrient elements to an ecosystem. The flow of any
element into an ecosystem is equal to the sum of the quantity it extracts from abiotic sources and the quantity
it receives from other ecosystems minus the quantity it releases to the environment.

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 • The carbon cycle. Both
living organisms and the
physical environment
contribute to the carbon
cycle.
• The influence of humans is
shown here by fuel
combustion at the factory

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 The water cycle
• Water is the most
plentiful substance in the
tissues of organisms.
• Most evaporation occurs
from the surface of the
oceans. Rainwater that
percolates (drips) into
soil can remain there as
groundwater or join
streams and rivers that
carry it to the sea.
• The decomposition of
water in photosynthesis
balances its synthesis in
cell respiration.

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 The nitrogen cycle
• Oxidation of nitrogen gas by
lightning adds significant
quantities of nitrate to soil and
water.
• In much of the world, nitrogen
fixation in fertilizer factories
• is a major source of nitrate and
ammonia.
• The unintended oxidation of
atmospheric nitrogen gas that
occurs when fossil fuels are
burned also contributes large
quantities of nitrate.

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