TROPHIC LEVELS IN ECOSYSTEM

By

Dr. Sachin Srivastava

Department of Agriculture
Himalayan College
 Trophic Level Definition: A trophic level is the group of organisms within
an ecosystem which occupy the same level in a food chain. There are five main
trophic levels within a food chain, each of which differs in its nutritional
relationship with the primary energy source. The primary energy source in any
ecosystem is the Sun (although there are exceptions in deep sea ecosystems).
Radiation from the Sun provides the input of energy which is used by primary
producers (Plants and Algae), also known as autotrophs
perform photosynthesis in order to manufacture their own food source.

One of the most important species interactions is who eats

whom.
Matter and energy move through the community.
Trophic levels = rank in the feeding hierarchy
Producers = Ist Trophic Level = Autotrophs (Produce their
own Food).
Primary consumers = IInd Trophic Level = Herbivores (Gain
energy by eating producers)
Consumers = IIIrd, Ivth and Vth = Heterotrophs = Carnivores
and Omnivores (Cannot produce their own food, Carnivores
depends only on flesh of other animals whereas omnivores eats
both on animals and plants).
 Variation between IIIrd, IVth and Vth Trophic levels
Trophic level IIIrd - consists of carnivores and omnivores - eat
herbivores; Acts as secondary consumers.
Trophic level IVth - contains carnivores and omnivores - eat
secondary consumers - Acts as tertiary consumers.
Trophic level Vth - consists of apex predators - these animals have
no natural predators and are therefore at the top of the food chain.
Detritivores and Decomposers = consume dead plant and animal material -
converting it into energy and nutrients - that plants can use for effective
growth.

They do not fill an independent trophic level, decomposers and detritivores,

such as fungi, bacteria, earthworms and flies, recycle waste material from
all other trophic levels and are an important part of a functioning
ecosystem.
 Abiotic chemicals Heat
(carbon dioxide,
Heat Solar
oxygen, nitrogen, energy
minerals)

Heat

Decomposers Producers
(bacteria, fungus) (plants)

Consumers
(herbivores,
Heat carnivores) Heat

Biotic Components of
Detritivores vs Decomposers Ecosystems
 Energy Flow and Matter Cycling in Ecosystems
Ecosystem has several interrelated mechanisms that affect human
life.
These are the water cycle, the carbon cycle, the oxygen cycle, the
nitrogen cycle and the energy cycle.
Every ecosystem is controlled by these cycles, in each ecosystem its
abiotic and biotic features are distinct from each other.
Functions of the ecosystem are in some way related to the growth
and regeneration of its plant and animal species. These linked
processes can be depicted as the various bio-geo chemical cycles.
These processes depend on energy from sunlight. Energy in natural
systems is transferred by heat, in form of energy.
 It flows between two bodies as a result of their difference in
temperature, or by work, which is transfer of energy that does not
depend upon a temperature difference, as governed by the laws of
thermodynamics.
 First Trophic Second Trophic Third Trophic Fourth Trophic
Level Level Level Level

Producers Primary Secondary Tertiary

(plants) consumers consumers consumers
(herbivores) (carnivores) (top carnivores)

Heat Heat Heat Heat

Solar
energy

Heat Heat

Heat
Detritvores
(decomposers and detritus feeders)

Flow of Energy at Different Levels of

Ecosystems
Basis of Flow of Energy in Ecosystem – Laws of Thermodynamics
First law of thermodynamics: Energy may be transferred or transformed, it is
converted and is not lost. Chemical energy in the food ingested by organisms is
converted by metabolic processes to work or heat that can be utilized by the
organisms, but there is no net gain or loss of energy overall.
The second law of thermodynamics: It demonstrates that each time energy is
transformed; some is lost in the sense that it cannot be utilized for work, so only a
fraction of the energy that organisms derive from metabolizing food can be
converted to work; the rest is dissipated as heat.
Energy Flow and Photosynthesis :
Materials are recycled through ecosystems and flow of useful energy may be
viewed as essentially a one-way process.
Incoming solar energy can be regarded as high-grade energy because it can
cause useful reactions to occur, the most important of which in living systems is
photosynthesis.
Solar energy captured by green plants energizes chlorophyll, which in turn
powers metabolic processes that produce carbohydrates from water and carbon
dioxide.
Here carbohydrates stored chemical energy that can be converted to heat and
work by metabolic reactions with oxygen in organisms.
Most of the energy is converted to low-grade heat, which is eventually re-
radiated away from Earth by infrared radiation.
Energy Flow and Bio-geo-chemical Cycles:
Cyclic flow of nutrients within an ecosystem is called bio-geo chemical cycle.
 Nutrients are provided by bio-geo chemical cycle and helps in growth and
development of living organisms.
Between abiotic and biotic factors nutrients are continuously transferred within
an ecosystem.
Biosphere that consists lithosphere, hydrosphere and atmosphere by which the
bio-geo chemical cycle operates. A complex process of recycling of chemical,
geological and biological sources of nutrients is done within an ecosystem.
1. Food Chain: Introduced by the African-Arab scientist and philosopher Al-
Jahiz in the 9th century and later popularized in a book published in 1927 by
Charles Elton.
Order of living organisms in a community in which one organism consumes other
and is itself consumed by another organism to transfer energy is called a food
chain. Food chain is also defined as “a chain of organisms, existing in any natural
community, through which energy is transferred”.
Every living being irrespective of their size and habitat, from the tiniest algae to
giant blue whales, need food to survive.
Food chain is structured differently for different species in different ecosystems.
Each food chain is the vital pathway for energy and nutrients to follow through
the ecosystem.
FOOD CHAINS
Mechanism of Food Chain:
Producers form the basis of the food chains. Then there are consumers of many
orders. Consumers are organisms that eat other organisms. All organisms in a
food chain, except the first organism, are consumers.
In a certain food chain, each organism gets energy from the one at the level
below. In a food chain, there is reliable energy transfer through each stage. All the
energy at one stage of the chain is not absorbed by the organism at the next stage.

2. Food Web: The word ‘web’ means network. Food web can be defined as ‘a
network of interconnected food chains so as to form a number of feeding
relationships amongst different organism of a biotic community.
A food chain cannot stand isolated in an ecosystem. The same food resource may
be a part of more than one chain. This is possible when the resource is at the lower
tropic level.
A food web comprises all the food chains in a single ecosystem. It is essential to
know that each living thing in an ecosystem is a part of multiple food chains.
A single food chain is the single possible path that energy and nutrients may
make while passing through the ecosystem. All the interconnected and
overlapping food chains in an ecosystem make up a food web.
Food Web
Food webs are significant tools in understanding that plants are the foundation
of all ecosystem and food chains, sustaining life by providing nourishment and
oxygen needed for survival and reproduction. The food web provides stability to
the ecosystem.
The tertiary consumers are eaten by quaternary consumers. For example, a
hawk that eats owls. Each food chain ends with a top predator and animal with no
natural enemies (such as an alligator, hawk, or polar bear).

Food chains/webs show how matter and energy move from one organism to
another through an ecosystem
Each trophic level contains a certain amount of biomass (dry weight of all
organic matter).
Chemical energy stored in biomass is transferred from one trophic level to the
next.
With each trophic level transfer, some usable energy is degraded and lost to
the environment as low quality heat .
Thus, only a small portion of what is eaten and digested is actually converted
into an organisms’ bodily material or biomass.
Ecological Efficiency: The % of usable energy transferred as biomass from
one trophic level to the next (ranges from 5-20% in most ecosystems, use 10%
as a rule of thumb). Thus, the more trophic levels or steps in a food chain, the
greater the cumulative loss of useable energy…
 Pyramids of energy, biomass, and numbers
Pyramidal representation of trophic levels of different organisms
based on their ecological position (producer to final consumer) is
called as an ecological pyramid.
Pyramid consists of a number of horizontal bars depicting specific
trophic levels. The length of each bar represents the total number of
individuals or biomass or energy at each trophic level in an
ecosystem.
Producer forms the base of the pyramid.
Top carnivore forms the tip.
Other consumer trophic levels are in between.
The ecological pyramids are of three categories.

1. Pyramid of numbers,
2. Pyramid of biomass, and
3. Pyramid of energy or productivity.
 Pyramid of Numbers

Represents the total number of individuals of different species (population) at

each trophic level.
Depending upon the size, the pyramid of numbers may not always be upright, and
may even be completely inverted.
Pyramid of number does not completely define the trophic structure for an
ecosystem.
Pyramid of numbers – upright Pyramid of numbers – inverted

No. of individuals decreased from No. of individuals increased from lower

lower level to higher trophic level. level to higher trophic level. E.g. Tree
Seen in the grassland ecosystem ecosystem
and pond ecosystem
 Pyramid of Biomass

Collects all organisms occupying each trophic level separately and measuring
their dry weight.
Overcomes the size difference problem because all kinds of organisms at a
trophic level are weighed.
Each trophic level has a certain mass of living material at a particular time
called the standing crop.
Standing crop is measured as the mass of living organisms (biomass) or the
number in a unit area.
 Pyramid of Biomass – upright

The pyramid has large base of primary producers with a smaller trophic level
perched on top.
Biomass of producers (autotrophs) is at the maximum.
Biomass of next trophic level i.e. primary consumers is less than the producers.
 Biomass of next higher trophic level i.e. secondary consumers is less than the
primary consumers.
Top, high trophic level has very less amount of biomass.
 Pyramid of Biomass – Inverted

In many aquatic ecosystems, the pyramid of biomass may assume an inverted
form. (In contrast, a pyramid of numbers for the aquatic ecosystem is upright).
This is because the producers are tiny phytoplankton that grows and reproduces
rapidly.
Pyramid of biomass has a small base, with the consumer biomass at any instant
exceeding the producer biomass and the pyramid assumes an inverted shape.
Pyramid of energy compare the functional roles of the trophic levels in an
ecosystem.
Energy pyramid represents the amount of energy at each trophic level and loss
of energy at each transfer to another trophic level. Hence the pyramid is always
upward, with a large energy base at the bottom.
 Sun 1000 Calories Light Forest Ecosystem:
Energy

Most of the energy is not absorbed; some is reflected to space; From the energy
absorbed only a small portion is utilized by green plants, out of which the plant
uses up some for respiration such as 100 calories are stored as energy-rich
materials.

Deer eats plants containing 100 calories energy. Deer use some of it for its
metabolism and stores only 10 calories as food energy.
A lion that eats the deer gets an even smaller amount of energy. Thus, usable
energy decreases from sunlight to producer to herbivore to carnivore. Therefore,
the energy pyramid will always be upright.

Energy pyramid concept helps to explain the phenomenon of biological

magnification – the tendency for toxic substances to increase in concentration
progressively with higher trophic levels.
 ECOLOGICAL HOMEOSTASIS
Homeo = Same, Stasis = State of activity
A “steady state” that an ecosystem maintains before a disruption.
HOMEOSTASIS DISRUPTION
Fire
Tornado
Volcano
Hurricanes
Humans
Tsunami
Invasive
Species

The ecosystems have a property to tolerate external disturbance or

stress. This property is known as homeostasis.
Interaction with the abiotic components, the ecosystems perform the functions
of energy flow and material cycling, and finally give a desired output in the form
of productivity.
Every ecosystem can operate within a range of conditions, depending upon its
homeostasis (capacity to resist change).
According to homeostatic plateau, the ecosystem has the potential to trigger
certain feedback mechanisms which help in maintaining the ecosystem
functioning by countering the disturbances. Such deviation-counteracting
feedbacks are known as negative feedback mechanisms.
Such feedback loops help in maintaining the ecological balance of the ecosystem.
 Balanced ecosystem has basic biotic components which have evolved with time
to suit the environmental conditions. The flow of energy and cycling of nutrients
take place in a definite pattern in such an ecosystem, under a set of physical
environment.
Outside disturbance beyond certain limit (exceeding the homeostatic plateau of
the ecosystem); the balance of the ecosystem is disrupted due to which deviation
accelerating mechanisms start operating. Such feedbacks are called positive
feedback mechanisms, which further increase the disturbances caused by the
external stress and thus take the ecosystem away from its optimal conditions,
finally leading to collapse of the system.
Carbon dioxide is required by green plants to manufacture their food during
photosynthesis and the food produced by green plants is actually the base of food
chains, energy flow and material cycles.
Ecosystems regulates the levels of CO through carbon cycle, where all living
organisms produce CO, green plants use them for photosynthesis, liberating
oxygen. Up to certain limits, increase in CO concentrations help in improving
production by green plants. Beyond a limit CO will cause an imbalance in the
ecosystem triggering various harmful positive feedbacks due to which global
warming, changing rainfall patterns, crop insecurity, storms, flooding and
emergence of new types of pests occurs create degradation of the ecosystem.