Unit 15 Energy flow 15.1,15.
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Key Definitions:
Population: a group of organisms of one species, living in the same area, at the same time.
Community: all of the populations of different species in an ecosystem.
Ecosystem: a unit containing the community of organisms and their environment, interacting
together, e.g. a decomposing log, or a lake.
Habitat: The area where an organism lives.
Food Chain : A food chain shows the transfer of energy from one organism to the next, beginning
with a producer.
Food web: A food web is a network of interconnected food chains.
Producer: A producer is an organism that makes its own organic nutrients, usually using energy
from sunlight, through photosynthesis.
Consumer: A consumer is an organism that gets its energy from feeding on other organisms.
Herbivore: A herbivore is an animal that gets its energy by eating plants.
Carnivore: A carnivore is an animal that gets its energy by eating other animals.
Decomposer: A decomposer is an organism that gets its energy from dead or waste organic material.
Interdependence: Interdependence means the way in which living organisms depend on each other
in order to remain alive, grow and reproduce.
Energy flow
Nearly all living things depend on the Sun to provide energy. This is harnessed by photosynthesising
plants and the energy is then passed through food chains.
With the exception of atomic energy and tidal power, all the energy released on Earth is
derived from sunlight.
The energy released by animals comes, ultimately, from plants that they or their prey eat,
and the plants depend on sunlight for making their food.
Photosynthesis is a process in which light energy is trapped by plants and converted into
chemical energy (stored in molecules such as carbohydrates, fats and proteins).
Since all animals depend, in the end, on plants for their food, they therefore depend
indirectly on sunlight.
Eventually, through one process or another, all the chemical energy in organisms is
transferred to the environment.
What is an Ecosystem?
The ecosystem is the structural and functional unit of ecology where the living
organisms interact with each other and the surrounding environment. In other
words, an ecosystem is a chain of interaction between organisms and their
environment.
Structure of the Ecosystem
The structure of an ecosystem is characterised by the organisation of both biotic
and abiotic components. This includes the distribution of energy in our
environment. It also includes the climatic conditions prevailing in that
environment.
The structure of an ecosystem can be split into two main components, namely:
Biotic Components
Abiotic Components
The biotic and abiotic components are interrelated in an ecosystem. It is an open
system where the energy and components can flow throughout the boundaries.
Biotic Components
Biotic components refer to all life in an ecosystem. Based on nutrition, biotic
components can be categorised into autotrophs, heterotrophs, and saprotrophs
(or decomposers).
Autotrophs vs. heterotrophs
Autotrophs
Some organisms, called autotrophs, also known as self-feeders, can make their
own food—that is, their own organic compounds—out of simple molecules like
carbon dioxide. There are two basic types of autotrophs:
1) Photoautotrophs, such as plants, use energy from sunlight to make
organic compounds—sugars—out of carbon dioxide in photosynthesis.
Other examples of photoautotrophs include algae and cyanobacteria.
2) Chemoautotrophs use energy from chemicals to build organic
compounds out of carbon dioxide or similar molecules. This is
called chemosynthesis. For instance, there are hydrogen sulphide-
oxidizing chemoautotrophic bacteria found in undersea vent communities
where no light can reach.
Autotrophs are the foundation of every ecosystem on the planet. Autotrophs
form the base of food chains and food webs, and the energy they capture from
light or chemicals sustains all the other organisms in the community.
Heterotrophs,
Heterotrophs are also known as other feeders, can't capture light or chemical
energy to make their own food out of carbon dioxide. Humans are heterotrophs.
Instead, heterotrophs get organic molecules by eating other organisms or their
by-products. Animals, fungi, and many bacteria are heterotrophs.
Trophic Levels
The position of a living things in a food chain is called its trophic level.
A food chain is a linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and
energy pass as one organism eats another. Let's look at the parts of a typical
food chain, starting from the bottom—the producers—and moving upward.
At the base of the food chain lie the primary producers. The primary
producers are autotrophs and are most often photosynthetic organisms such as
plants, algae, or cyanobacteria.
The organisms that eat the primary producers are called primary consumers.
Primary consumers are usually herbivores, plant-eaters, though they may be
algae eaters or bacteria eaters.
The organisms that eat the primary consumers are called secondary
consumers. Secondary consumers are generally meat-eaters—carnivores.
The organisms that eat the secondary consumers are called tertiary consumers.
These are carnivore-eating carnivores, like eagles or big fish.
Some food chains have additional levels, such as quaternary consumers—
carnivores that eat tertiary consumers. Organisms at the very top of a food chain
are called apex consumers.
Abiotic Components
Abiotic components are the non-living component of an ecosystem. It includes
air, water, soil, minerals, sunlight, temperature, nutrients, wind, altitude,
turbidity, etc.
Important Ecological Concepts
1. FOOD CHAIN
2. FOOD WEB
3. ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
Food Chain
The sun is the ultimate source of energy on earth. It provides the energy
required for all plant life. The plants utilise this energy for the process of
photosynthesis, which is used to synthesise their food.
During this biological process, light energy is converted into chemical energy
and is passed on through successive levels. The flow of energy from a producer
to a consumer and eventually, to an apex predator or a detritivore is called the
food chain.
Food chain is a linear sequence of organisms which starts from producer and ends
with decomposer.
In scientific terms, a food chain is a chronological pathway or an order that
shows the flow of energy from one organism to the other. In a community
which has producers, consumers, and decomposers, the energy flows in a specific
pathway. Energy is not created or destroyed. But it flows from one level to the
other, through different organisms.
A food chain shows a single pathway from the producers to the consumers and
how the energy flows in this pathway. In the animal kingdom, food travels around
different levels. To understand a food chain better, let us look at the terrestrial
ecosystem.
Example of food chain
Grass (Producer) —–Goat (Primary Consumer) —– Man (Secondary consumer)
Food Web
Food web is a network of interconnected food chains. It comprises all the food
chains within a single ecosystem. It helps in understanding that plants lay the
foundation of all the food chains. In a marine environment, phytoplankton
forms the primary producer. A food web is a representation of the energy flow
through different organisms in an ecosystem.
Sometimes, a single organism gets eaten by many predators or it eats many other
organisms. This is when a food chain doesn’t represent the energy flow in a
proper manner because there are many trophic levels that interconnect. This is
where a food web comes into place. It shows the interactions between different
organisms in an ecosystem.The following diagram shows the energy flow
between various organisms through a food web.
Difference between food chain and food web.
Food chain is a linear sequence of organisms which starts from producer and ends
with decomposer. Food web is a connection of multiple food chains. Food chain
follows a single path whereas food web follows multiple paths. From the food
chain, we get to know how organisms relate to each other.
ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
An ecological pyramid is a graphical representation
which depicts the number of organisms or biomass or
energy level at each trophic level of a food chain. All
ecological pyramids begin at the bottom with the
producers (plants, phytoplankton, algae etc) and proceed through different
trophic levels of consumers.
Definition
Ecological pyramid is also known as trophic pyramid or energy pyramid; it is
graphically represented to show the biomass or productivity of the biomass at
each trophic level in an ecosystem. They are graphical representations of the
structure of trophic levels of ecosystems.
Types
There are 3 types of ecological pyramids as described as follows:
Pyramid of energy
Pyramid of numbers and
Pyramid of biomass.
Pyramid of Energy
The pyramid of energy or the energy pyramid
describes the overall nature of the ecosystem.
During the flow of energy from organism to other,
there is considerable loss of energy in the form of
heat. The primary producers like the autotrophs
there is more amount of energy available. The least
energy is available in the tertiary consumers. Thus,
shorter food chain has more amount of energy
available even at the highest trophic level.
The energy pyramid always upright and
vertical.
This pyramid shows the flow of energy at different trophic levels.
It depicts the energy is minimum as the highest trophic level and is
maximum at the lowest trophic level.
At each trophic level, there is successive loss of energy in the form of
heat and respiration, etc.
Pyramid of Numbers
The pyramid of numbers depicts the relationship in terms of the number of
producers, herbivores and the carnivores at their successive trophic levels.
There is a decrease in the number of individuals from the lower to the higher
trophic levels. The number pyramid varies from ecosystem to ecosystem. There
are three of pyramid of numbers:
Upright pyramid of number
Partly upright pyramid of number
Inverted pyramid of number.
Upright Pyramid of Number
This type of pyramid number is found in the aquatic and grassland ecosystem,
in these ecosystems there are numerous small autotrophs which support lesser
herbivores which in turn support smaller number of carnivores and hence this
pyramid is upright.
Partly Upright pyramid of Number
It is seen in the forest ecosystem where the number of producers is lesser in
number and support a greater number of herbivores and which in turn support a
fewer number of carnivores.
Inverted Pyramid of Number
This type of ecological pyramid is seen in parasitic food chain where one
primary producer supports numerous
parasites which support more
hyperparasites.
Pyramid of Biomass
In this pyramid, there is a gradual decrease in the
biomass from the producers to the higher trophic
levels. The biomass here the net organisms collected
from each feeding level and are then dried and
weighed. This dry weight is the biomass, and it
represents the amount of energy available in the form
of organic matter of the organisms. In this pyramid,
the net dry weight is plotted to that of the producers,
herbivores, carnivores, etc.
Upright Pyramid of Biomass
This occurs when the larger net biomass of producers supports a smaller weight
of consumers.
Example: Forest ecosystem.
15.3 Decomposers
Decomposers such as bacteria and fungi break down dead plants and animal
wastes in the process of decomposition. During decomposition complex
substances converted into simple inorganic nutrients such as carbon and
nitrogen. These nutrients are back into the environment so, that the producers
can use them.
Examples of decomposers
Role of decomposers in the ecosystem
Decomposers play a critical role in the flow of energy through an ecosystem.
They break apart dead organisms into simpler inorganic materials, making
nutrients available to primary producers.
15.4 Changing populations.
15.5 Facing extinction
• Population sizes are normally
controlled by the amount of food
available, and the numbers killed by the
predators and diseases.
• Change in a habitat such as entry of a
new predator or change in food supply
can make a species extinct.
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