Essential Questions:
What limits the production in ecosystems?
How do nutrients move in the ecosystem?
How does energy move through the
ecosystem?
Ecosystem
All the organisms in a community plus abiotic
factors
ecosystems are transformers of energy
& processors of matter
Ecosystems are self-sustaining
what is needed?
capture energy
transfer energy
cycle nutrients
Ecosystem inputs
constant
energy flows
input
of
through
energy
nutrients cycle
Energy cannot
Don’t forget
bethe
created
laws ofnor
Physics!
destroyed
nutrients inputs
can only energy
cycle
biosphere nutrients
Level 4
Tertiary consumer sun
Food chains
Trophic levels Level 3
top carnivore
feeding relationships Secondary consumer
start with energy from
carnivore
the sun Level 2
Primary consumer
captured by plants
heterotrophs
1st level of all food chains
herbivore
food chains usually go Level 1
Producer
up only 4 or 5 levels
inefficiency of energy
autotrophs
transfer
all levels connect to Decomposers
Fungi
decomposers Bacteria
Energy flows through food chains
secondary
loss of
consumers energy
sun (carnivores)
primary consumers
Energy is (herbivores) loss of
incorporated energy
into a
community by
what group?
producers (plants)
Inefficiency of energy transfer sun
Loss of energy between levels of food chain
To where is the energy lost? The cost of living!
17%
growth
energy lost to
only this energy daily living
moves on to the 33%
next level in cellular
the food chain respiration 50%
waste (feces)
sun
Ecological pyramid
Loss of energy between levels of food chain
can feed fewer animals in each level
Average of 10%
energy
available for
next level
Notice only 1% of
sunlight energy
converted by plants
Humans in food chains
Energy dynamics of ecosystems have important
implications for human populations
How much energy is available if we are:
carnivores? vegetarians?
Seems to be
easier/cheaper to
support a large
population on
grain than on
beef!
Productivity
Primary productivity: Term for the rate
which producers photosynthesize
organic compounds in an ecosystem.
Gross primary productivity: total amount of photosynthetic
biomass production in an ecosystem
Net Primary Productivity = GPP – respiration cost
Ecosystems with greater productivity have
more sunlight, water and nutrients.
What you need to be able to do:
Using the laws of conservation of matter
and energy to do some basic accounting
and determine different aspects of energy
and matter usage in a community.
Remember: Inputs have to equal outputs
Sample problem #1
Total energy output?
.75 kcal
How much is used to
build biomass or
Secondary
Production?
.05 kcal
What % is not being
efficiently used for
biomass?
93%
Sample problem #2
A caterpillar consumes 100 kcal of
energy. It uses 35 kcal for cell
respiration, and loses 50 kcal as waste.
Determine the trophic efficiency for its
creation of new biomass.
Total energy consumed = 100 kcal
Lost and Respired: 35 + 50 = 85 kcal
Total energy for growth: 15 kcal
Efficiency (%) = 15/100 = .15 or 15%
Generalized
Nutrient consumers
cycling
producers
consumers
decomposers
nutrients
nutrients
ENTER FOOD CHAIN
made available
= made available
to producers
to producers
return to
Decomposition abiotic
reservoir
connects all abiotic
trophic levels reservoir
geologic
processes
Carbon cycle
CO2 in Combustion of fuels
atmosphere
Industry and home
Photosynthesis
Diffusion Respiration
Plants
Animals
Dissolved CO2
abiotic reservoir:
Bicarbonates CO in atmosphere
22
enter food chain:
Photosynthesis photosynthesis = carbon
Deposition
fixation in Calvin cycle
Animals recycle: of dead
material
Plants and algae return to abiotic:
respiration
combustion
Fossil fuels
Deposition of
Carbonates in sediment (oil, gas, coal)
dead material
The carbon cycle is nature's way of
reusing carbon atoms, which travel
from the atmosphere into organisms
in the Earth and then back into the
atmosphere over and over again.
Most carbon is stored in rocks and
sediments, while the rest is stored in
the ocean, atmosphere, and living
organisms.
abiotic reservoir:
Nitrogen cycle
N in atmosphere
enter food chain:
nitrogen fixation by soil & aquatic bacteria
recycle:
decomposing & nitrifying bacteria
return to abiotic:
denitrifying bacteria Atmospheric
Carnivores nitrogen
Herbivores
Birds
Plankton with Plants
nitrogen-fixing
bacteria Death, excretion, feces
Fish Nitrogen-fixing
Decomposing bacteria bacteria
(plant roots)
amino acids
excretion
Ammonifying bacteria Nitrogen-fixing
bacteria
loss to deep sediments (soil)
Nitrifying bacteria
Denitrifying
soil nitrates bacteria
The nitrogen cycle is a repeating
cycle of processes during which
nitrogen moves through both living
and non-living things: the
atmosphere, soil, water, plants,
animals and bacteria. In order to
move through the different parts of
the cycle, nitrogen must change
forms
abiotic reservoir:
N in atmosphere
enter food chain:
nitrogen fixation by soil & aquatic
bacteria
recycle:
decomposing & nitrifying bacteria
return to abiotic:
denitrifying bacteria
abiotic reservoir:
rocks, minerals, soil
Phosphorus cycle
enter food chain:
erosion releases
soluble phosphate
uptake by plants
recycle:
decomposing
bacteria & fungi
return to abiotic:
loss to ocean
sediment
Plants Land
animals Animal tissue
Urine and feces
Soluble soil
phosphate Decomposers
Loss in (bacteria and
drainage fungi)
Rocks and
minerals
Decomposers Phosphates
(bacteria & fungi) in solution
Animal tissue
and feces Aquatic Plants and
animals algae
Precipitates
Loss to deep sediment
The Phosphorus Cycle is the
biogeochemical cycle that describes
the transformation and translocation
of phosphorus in soil, water, and
living and dead organic material
abiotic reservoir:
surface & atmospheric water
Water cycle enter food chain:
precipitation & plant uptake
recycle:
transpiration
return to abiotic:
evaporation & runoff
Solar energy
Transpiration
Water vapor
Evaporation
Precipitation
Oceans
Runoff
Lakes
Percolation in soil Aquifer
Groundwater
The water cycle shows the continuous
movement of water within the Earth and
atmosphere. It is a complex system that
includes many different processes.
Liquid water evaporates into water
vapor, condenses to form clouds, and
precipitates back to earth in the form of
rain and snow
Transpiration
Why does
water flow We will discuss
into, up process in
and out of detail soon!
a plant?
