Producers: Basic Source of all food
Carbon dioxide + water + solar energy -> glucose + oxygen
6CO2 + 6H2O + solar energy -> C6H12O6 + 6O2
Chemosynthesis: some organisms such as deep ocean bacteria draw energy from
hydrothermal vents and produce carbohydrates from hydrogen
Photosynthesis
Chlorophyll molecules in the chloroplast of plant cells absorb solar energy
This initials a complex series of chemical reaction in which carbon dioxide and water are
converted into sugar and oxygen
Consumers: eating and recycling to survive consumers( heterotrophic )
Aerobic and Anaerobic
Glucose + oxygen -> CO2 + water + energy
Hippo
H for habitat destruction and degradation
I for invasive species
P for pollution
P for human population growth
O for Overexploitation
Biodiversity provides us with
Natural Resources
Natural Services
Aesthetic Pleasure
1 Trophic 2 Trophic 3 Trophic 4 Trophic
Solar Energy→ Produces→ Herbivores→ Carnivores→ tertiary top consumers
Food Webs
Trophic levels are interconnected with in complicated food web
In accordance with the 2nd law of thermodynamics there is a decrease in the amount of
energy available to each succeeding organism in a food chain or web
Ecological efficiency: percentage of usable energy transferred as biomass from on tropic
level to the next (90% loss)
Gross Primary Production GPP
Rate at which ecosystems produces convert solar energy into chemical energy as biomass
Net Primary Production NPP = GPP-R
Rate at which produces use photosynthesis to store energy minus the rate at which they
use some of this energy though respiration
Soil: A renewable Resource
Soil is a slowly renewed resource that produces most of the nutrients needed of plant
growth and also help purify water
Soil format begins when bed rock is broken down by physical, chemical and
biological process called weathering
Physical and Biological
- Frost wedging
- Unloading
- Animals and plants
Chemical
- Dissolve oxygen oxidation
- CO2 carbonic acid
Mature soils or soils that have developed over a long time are arranged in a series of
horizontal layers called soil horizons.
O Horizon – Leaf Litter
A Horizon – Top soil *most important
B Horizon – subsoil
C Horizon – Parent Material
Layers in Mature Soils
Infiltration: the downward movement of water thought soil.
Leaching: the dissolving of minerals and organic matter in upper layers carry them to
lower layers.
The soil type determines the degree of infiltration and leaching
High Permeability –
Low Permeability –
Matter Cycling in Ecosystems
Nutrient cycles: Global Recycling
- Global Cycles Recycle nutrients through the earths air, land, water, and living
organisms
- Nutrients are the elements and compounds that organisms need to live, grow,
and reproduce.
- Biogeochemical cycles move these substances through air, water, soil, rock
and living organisms
Transpiration – plants give off water vapor
Effects of Human Activities on Water Cycle by:
We alter the water cycle by:
- Withdrawing large amounts of fresh water.
- Clearing Vegetation and eroding soils.
- Polluting surface and underground water
- Contributing to climate change
Carbon cycle
Exhale co2 comes out
Goes to atmosphere
1 of two things happen
Plants take it or go into solutions such as oceans
Absorbed by marine organisms
Death layers of dead bodies and turn into sedimentary rocks
Nitrogen Cycle
78% of air in nitrogen
Nitrogen taken out of the atmospheres -> converted to ammonia -> Nitrification ->
nitrates in soil -> denitrification -> back into the atmosphere
Effects of Human activities on the nitrogen cycle
We alter the nitrogen cycle by:
- Adding gases that contribute to acid rain.
- Adding nitrous oxide to the atmosphere through farming practices which can
warm the atmosphere and deplete ozone
- Contaminating ground water from nitrate ions in inorganic fertilizers
- Releasing nitrogen into the troposphere through deforestation
Effects of human activities on the Phosphorous cycle
We remove large amounts of phosphate from the earth to make fertilizer
We reduce phosphates in tropical soils by clearing forest
We add excess phosphates to aquatic systems from runoff of animals wastes and
fertilizers
Effects of human activities on the sulfur cycle
We add sulfur dioxide to the atmosphere by:
- burning coal and oil
- refining sulfur containing petroleum
- convert sulfur-containing metallic ores into free metals such as copper, lead,
and zinc releasing sulfur dioxide into the environment
The Gaia Hypothesis: Is the Earth alive?
Some have proposed that the earth’s various forms of the life control or at least influence
its chemical cycles and other earth sustaining processes
- The strong Gaia hypothesis: life controls the earths life sustaining processes
- The weak Gaia hypothesis: life influences the earths life sustaining processes
