Ecosystems

 An ecosystem is the unit composed of all the living things in a single

place at a given time, in addition to, the important non-living
components of the system.
– Nonliving components include sunlight, rainfall, silica and clay
particles in the soil, the air, the water in the soil, etc.
– Thus, an ecosystem encompasses all aspects of a biological
community, in addition to factors such as rates of CO2 uptake,
rates of nitrogen fixation from the atmosphere, precipitation,
seasonal flooding and its effects on nutrients, etc.
 Ecosystems vary in size. Like communities, small
ecosystems are “stacked” within larger ones, and the
boundaries are sometimes diffuse.
 The biosphere the largest and most encompassing
ecosystem we know-it encompasses all the plants and
animals on Earth.
 Energy and Biomass
 Much of ecosystems ecology concerns itself with the flow of energy
and biomass.
– Nutrient cycling and energy flow are common to all biological
communities.
– These phenomena are both a consequence, and a function of
biological communities.
 The complex matrix of interactions among members of a
community expends energy, as well as passing it from one
member to the next through trophic interactions.
 Likewise, biomass is constantly recycled through production,
predation, herbivory, and decomposition.
 Energy
 The sun is the ultimate energy source for almost every ecosystem on
earth.
 Hydothermal vent communities are a partial exception-(they

rely on geothermal energy, but still depend upon oxygen fixed

by photosynthetic organisms).
– Energy enters ecosystems via photosynthesis (or, in a few exotic
excosystems, chemosynthesis).
– Organisms that bring energy into an ecosystem are called
producers.
– Producers include green plants, algae, cyanobacteria, etc..anything
that can make its own energy from nonliving components of the
environment.
 Organisms continuously use energy.
– All metabolic processes consume energy in some
way, and in each reaction, much of it is effectively
“wasted”…
 ..this is one reason why rapid metabolism makes us
homeothermic-the waste heat from metabolic processes,
mostly as molecular motion, warms our bodies.
 Ultimately, all biological energy radiates into the
environment as infrared light (a by-product of respiration).
 Much energy is lost every time it passes from one
trophic level to the next.
 Energy does not recycle.
– it must be continually replenished from the sun.
 Autotrophs fix their own energy from inorganic
sources.
– Autotrophs are the producers in an ecosystem.
 Heterotrophs depend upon energy and carbon fixed
by some other organism
– they are consumers, detritivores, or decomposers.
 (A mixotroph is gets its energy from inorganic sources, but
relies of organic sources of carbon.)
 A food web is a schematic diagram that
describes the patterns of energy flow in an
ecosystem
 Every instance of predation, herbivory, and parasitism
is a trophic interaction that moves energy from one
organism to another.
 Decomposition is also a trophic interaction that uses

up the energy left over in dead bodies of organisms.

– A food chain is one path through a food web,
from bottom to top.
 Because energy is lost at each step, food chains have a limited
number of links.
 Matter
 Unlike energy, matter recycles through ecosystems.
– Atoms of every biologically important element constantly
recycle through ecosystems, into the abiotic component of
the biosphere, and back into living systems.
 Elements are passed from one organism to another via trophic
interactions, or are taken directly from the environment.
 Via the process of decomposition, each element ultimately
becomes nonliving, and has the potential to re-enter the biosphere
again.
 Thus, each element has its own biogeochemical cycle-these can
take days, years, or eons, depending upon the element and the
circumstances.
 Biomass
 Biomass can be defined as the weight of living matter
(usually measured in dry weight per unit area).
 A pyramid of biomass is a figure that quantifies the
relative amounts of living biomass found at each trophic
level.
 In most ecosystems, the amount of biomass found in each
trophic level decreases progressively as one moves from the
bottom to the top of the food chain.
Pyramid of biomass for a pond. (Source: Data from Whittaker,
R.H. 1961. Experiments with radiophosphorus tracer in
aquarium microcosms. Ecological Monographs 31:157-188).
 Primary consumers eat producers.
 They generally possess significantly less biomass than
producers.
– Plants have evolved numerous mechanisms to protect their
tissues from consumption by herbivores and pathogens
– In most ecosystems only a small amount of producer
biomass is eaten.
– Significant losses of biomass occur because of digestive
inefficiencies, and return of CO2 to the atmosphere via
respiration.
 Assimilation efficiencies for most terrestrial herbivores range from 20
to 60 percent. Some invertebrates do better than that..some do not.
 A very large proportion of the assimilated biomass is lost through the
process of respiration, so only a small amount of the biomass is
available to the next level.
 Secondary consumers consume primary consumers.
 Tertiary consumers consume secondary consumers, and so forth.
– Not all organisms at one level are eaten, because of defensive
mechanisms-and predation is only one way to die.
– Defensive adaptations include the ability to fly and run, body
armor, quills and protective spines, and camouflage.
 In general, carnivores have higher assimilation efficiencies than

herbivores. These range from 50 to 90 percent.

 Only a small fraction of the assimilated energy becomes

carnivore biomass because of the metabolic energy needs of

body maintenance, growth, reproduction, and locomotion.
 Most food chains have at most four
or five trophic levels.
– The amount of biomass found at
each trophic level is small relative
to amount found at the next lowest
level.
– This is because less energy is
available to successive consumers.

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