CH 20: ORGANISMS AND THEIR

ENVIRONMENT

*Ch19 in exam syllabus

 ENERGY FLOW IN ECOSYSTEM

• Sun is the ultimate energy source of energy in most

ecosystems

• Energy flows in an ecosystem from one organism to

another in the form of food (chemical energy)
ENERGY FLOW IN AN ECOSYSTEM
 FOOD CHAIN

Sun is the
ultimate source
of energy in all Secondary consumer
Producer
Primary consumer
food chains Shows the
feeding
Tertiary consumer relationships of
organisms

Producer Arrows
represent the
direction of
energy and
Quaternary material flow
consumer
 FOOD WEBS

• A food web is a network of interconnected

food chains
• In an ecosystem there seldom exists only one
food chain
-- food webs are thus a more realistic
representation to show connections between
organisms
 FOOD WEBS

• Food webs can show interdependence– how the change in

one population can affect the others in the food web

If population of earthworms decreased:

- Population of grass increases: less organisms

feed off it

- Population of mice & frogs significantly

decrease: less of their only food source

- Population of sparrows decrease slightly:

less of one of their food sources.
 TROPHIC LEVELS

• Trophic level: the position an organism occupies in a food chain, web or pyramid.

Energy flows from lower to higher

trophic levels

Energy flows from the sun to producers

(1st trophic level) as light energy

Energy flows from producers to

primary consumers and then to
subsequent consumers as chemical
energy
Quaternary consumerà
 ENERGY LOSS AT TROPIC LEVELS

• As energy moves from one tropic level to the next, energy is lost to the
environment

• The majority of energy a organisms receives by consuming another is lost by…

- Producing waste products (e.g. urea)
- As heat (from respiration)
- Undigested waste (e.g. fibre)
- Uneaten remains (e.g. bones)

Only the energy used to make new cells is passed on to the next trophic level
ENERGY LOSS AT TROPIC LEVELS

Decomposers e.g. bacteria/fungi

feed on the remains, egested
and excretory materials of
producers & consumers
ENERGY LOSS AT TROPHIC LEVELS

Only around 10% of

energy is transferred to
the next trophic level
 LIMIT TO NO. OF TROPHIC LEVELS IN A
FOOD CHAIN

• Due to the inefficient loss of energy (~90%) at

each trophic levelà food chains tend to only
contain up to 5 trophic levels

• The apex predator (highest trophic level

consumer) would have to eat so many
organisms just to get enough energy from
them

• There are only a limited number of prey and it

costs energy to hunt
Energy flow within an food chain is noncyclic– once it reaches the highest trophic it is all
lost to the environment (does not get recycled)
In contrast chemical elements the organisms are made of do get recycled repeatedly
 ENERGY TRANSFER IN HUMAN FOOD
CHAINS
• Humans are omnivores (can eat both plants and animals)

• Humans can choose what to eat à this choice impacts what we

grow/raise and use the ecosystem Due to energy loss in a food chain, it
is more energy efficient for humans
to eat the wheat as it will have more
Consider these two food chains: energy.

It is more energy efficient in a crop

Wheatà cowà human
food chain for humans to be
herbivores
Wheatà human
 INVASIVE SPECIES

• An invasive species is one which is introduced to an environment (by

humans) and causes ecological harm to the native species living there.
OVERHARVESTING (E.G. OVERFISHING)

Overharvesting, for e.g. overfishing is

when humans catch or harvest
organisms faster than they can
reproduce.

This depletes the population of that

organism

This will then have effects on the food

web
 PYRAMIDS OF NUMBER

• Pyramids of number show how many organisms are at each

trophic level

• The longer the ‘box’ the more organisms it represents

• The flow of energy moves from the base (producers) to the

peak of the pyramid
PYRAMIDS OF NUMBER
 PYRAMIDS OF NUMBER

• Sometimes the base of the pyramid is

smaller than upper levels

• This is when one large producer (e.g. a

tree) can provide enough energy many
consumers or many parasites living on a
single organism
 PYRAMIDS OF BIOMASS

• Pyramids of biomass show how much dry mass is at each

trophic level

• Remember dry mass- mass of an organism without including

its water content

The largest biomass would be at the

base (producers) and get smaller as
you go to higher trophic levels
Pyramids of biomass provide a
better representation of the
‘quantity’ of plant or animal at each
trophic level compared to a pyramid
of numbers.
 CYCLING OF MATERIALS IN AN
ECOSYSTEM

• Unlike energy which is eventually lost… materials such as

Carbon & Nitrogen are constantly cycled between
organisms and their physical environment
Nitrogen cycle
CARBON CYCLE
CARBON CYCLE
CARBON CYCLE
CARBON CYCLE
 CARBON CYCLE

Major events in Carbon cycle Process involved

Removal of CO2 from the environment -Photosynthesis by producers

Carbon transfer between trophic levels -Feeding of organisms

and decomposers
Return of CO2 to the environment -Respiration of organisms
-Decomposition of organic
matter by decomposer
- Combustion of fossil fuels
 VIDEO

• Carbon cycle
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n_svwXrzMMs&t=14s (Mr Exham)
 DEFORESTATION AND THE CARBON
CYCLE

• Due to deforestation there are less producers to take CO2

out of the atmosphere by photosynthesis

• As many trees are burnt (e.g. for fuel, to clear land) rather
than being used for wood, the carbon stored in them is
released back into the atmosphere as CO2
NITROGEN CYCLE

1- Fixation
• Nitrogen in air (78%) is unreactive. For
plants to use

• Must be converted into soluble ions (e.g.

nitrates)

• Nitrogen-fixing bacteria living in root nodes

of leguminous plants can do this

• Lightning can also convert nitrogen gas into

nitrates

• Nitrogen-fixing bacteria can convert

ammonia in fertilisers into nitrates &
ammonia ions
NITROGEN CYCLE

2- Removal from soil &

absorption into roots
and incorporation into
plants

• Plants use the nitrates in soil to produce

proteins
NITROGEN CYCLE

3- Moving along trophic

levels of food chain &
excretion

• When an animal eats a plant, nitrogen from

the plant’s proteins becomes proteins in the
animal. Nitrogen is also passed from one
animal to another by feeding.
NITROGEN CYCLE

4- Death of animals

• Decomposers break down urea, egested

material (eg. faeces) and dead bodies.

• This results in nitrogen being returned to

the soil as ammonium ions, which
nitrifying bacteria can convert into
nitrates for plants to absorb.
NITROGEN CYCLE

6- Release into
atmosphere

• Denitrifying bacteria in the soil break

down nitrates and return nitrogen gas to
the air.
Nitrogen fixation

Denitrification
Nitrification
 NITROGEN CYCLE

Major events in Nitrogen cycle Processes involved

Nitrogen entering the food chain -Absorption of nitrates by plants
-Nitrogen fixation by nitrogen-fixing
bacteria in leguminous plants
Nitrogen transfer between trophic levels Feeding of organisms
Addition of nitrogen to the soil -Decomposition by putrefying
bacteria or fungi
-Nitrogen fixation by free-living
nitrogen-fixing bacteria
-Lightning
Removal of nitrogen from soil Denitrification by denitrifying
bacteria
 VIDEO

• Nitrogen cycle:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrP1E-yM7Cs&t=24s (Mr Exham)

 - Energy from the sun heats the
Earth’s surface and evaporates water
from oceans/rivers/lakes

- Transpiration from plants releases

water vapour into the air

- Warm air from lower atmosphere

rises taking water vapour with it

- This warm air cools and condenses

back into liquid at higher altitudes
à clouds form
Movement
of water - As water droplets get heavier in
through soil clouds, water returns to the earth
surface as precipitation

- Most water returns to oceans and

lakes as surface runoff or through
soil (perlocation)

- Some is absorbed by plants

 VIDEO

• Water cycle:

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWb1YLedDMc (Free science lessons)

 POPULATION, COMMUNITY &
ECOSYSTEM

• Population: A group of organisms of one species, living in the

same area at the same time

• Community: All the populations of different species in an

ecosystem

• Ecosystem: A unit containing the community of organisms and

their environment interacting with each other (e.g. a decomposing
log or lake)
 FACTORS AFFECTING POPULATION
GROWTH

• All organisms compete for limited resources (e.g. food, water

territory)

• Those better adapted to their environment generally

outcompete others and increase their population size
 FACTORS AFFECTING POPULATION
GROWTH

• Population growth in most organisms controlled by 3 main

factors:

- Food supply
- Predation
- Disease
 POPULATION GROWTH

• Population growth in an environment with limited resources

can be shown by a graph showing the growth curve
 SIGMOID GROWTH CURVE

Sigmoid growth curve (named due to

the S-shape) can be divided into phases

Stationary Lag phase: organisms adapting to new

Log phase environment. Not much reproduction
phase
due to small population.
Lag
phase Log phase: abundant resources results
in exponential population increase
(birth rate > death rate)

Stationary phase: population levels

out due to resources becoming limited
(limiting factors)
 SIGMOID GROWTH CURVE

Death/decline phase:

-Due to food shortage or buildup of

metabolic waste (e.g. in an aquatic
Population size

ecosystem)

Death rate > birth

Population Size thus decreases

 POPULATION GROWTH

• In a natural habitat (as opposed to a culture of bacteria in a Petri dish)

• Sigmoid growth curve is unlikely due to other factors affecting population

size:

- Changing abiotic factors (light, temp.)

- Predators
- Immigration (individuals moving in)
- Emigration (individuals leaving)
- Disease
HUMAN POPULATION GROWTH

Human population has exponentially

increased during the last 150 years (since
around the industrial revolution).

This is due to:

- Improved technology Increase birth

- Abundance of food rate

- Improved medicine
- Improved hygiene & health care
Decreases death
rate
HUMAN POPULATION GROWTH

A exponentially increasing human population will

put strain on Earth’s limited resources and have
negative impacts on ecosystems…

- Increased energy demand à increased

burning fossil fuels à increased pollution/
greenhouse effect

- Increased food demand à land cleared for

agriculture

- Increased demand for raw materialsà

deforestation for wood/ clear land for mining

- Increased demand for land à

deforestation, land reclamation
QUESTION #1
QUESTION #2
QUESTION #3
QUESTION #4
QUESTION #5
QUESTION #6
QUESTION #7
QUESTION #8
QUESTION #9
 ANSWERS

• 1. D
• 2. B
• 3. C
• 4. C
• 5. B
• 6. D
• 7. A
• 8. B
• 9. D