LESSON 3; CORE ECOLOGICAL LAWS • Without keystone ecosystems

would look very different. Some

Barry Commoner, a founder of modern
ecosystems might not be able to
ecology and one of its most provocative
adapt to environmental changes
thinkers and mobilizers in making
if their keystone species
environmentalism a people’s political
disappeared.
cause.
Competition and Predation
• Responsible for the first
celebration of Earth day in the • In an ecosystem, competition arises
world. when resources are in limited supply
• His famous book, "The Closing and organisms strive to obtain these
Circle," published in 1970, resources.
provides a clear and
• Predation often greatly reduces prey
understandable example of what
population density and alters
ecology truly means.
community composition and species
FOUR LAWS OF ECOLOGY diversity.

1. “Everything Is Connected to 3. “Everything Must go Somewhere”

Everything Else”
This is, of course, simply a somewhat
It reflects the existence of the elaborate informal restatement of a basic law of
network of interconnections in the physics—that matter is indestructible.
ecosphere: among different living Applied to ecology, the law emphasizes
organisms, and between populations, that in nature there is no such thing as
species, and individual organisms and “waste.” In every natural system, what is
their physicochemical surroundings. excreted by one organism as waste is
taken up by another as food.
2. Everything Is Connected to
Everything Else LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS

Food Chain is the transfer of energy and • First Law of Thermodynamics: energy
material through a series of organisms can be transformed from one form to
as each one is fed by the next. another but can never be created or
destroyed.
Food Web is a relatively complex series
of feeding relationships which may • Second Law of Thermodynamics:
comprise a group of food chains. each time energy is transformed, it
tends to go from a more organized and
Keystone species could be a huge
concentrated form to a less organized
predator or an unassuming plant, but
and more dispersed form.
without them the ecosystem may not
survive.
LAW OF CONSERVATION OF MASS Biogeochemical Cycle
(MATTER)
• A biogeochemical cycle or cycling of
Mass is neither created nor destroyed in substances or substance turnover is the
chemical reactions. In other words, the cycling pathway by which chemical
mass of any one element at the elements required by life moves through
beginning of a reaction will equal the both biotic (biosphere) and abiotic
mass of that element at the end of the (lithosphere, atmosphere and
reaction. hydrosphere) compartments of Earth.

BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLE • A cycle is a series of change which

comes back to starting point and which
The main role of a biogeochemical cycle
can be repeated.
is to recycle the elements on the earth.
Biogeochemical cycle enables the • The term “biogeochemical” tells us
transformation of matter from one form that biological, geological and chemical
to another form. The byproducts of factors are involved.
biogeochemical cycles assist the
Water Cycle
functioning of ecosystems.
• The water cycle, also known as
4. “Nature Knows Best”
hydrologic cycle or the H2O cycle
The third law of ecology holds that any describes continuous movements of
major man-made change in a natural water on, above and through the Earth
system is likely to be detrimental to that via the land, atmosphere and oceans.
system.
• The water cycle figures significantly in
ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION the maintenance of life and ecosystems.

is important for the growth and 1. Evaporation & Transpiration –-

development of an ecosystem. It Evaporation is the process where
initiates the colonization of new areas water from lakes, rivers, oceans, and
and the recolonization of the areas that other bodies of water turns into
had been destroyed due to certain biotic vapor due to the heat from the sun.
and climatic factors. This water vapor rises into the air

- Transpiration happens when

“There Is No Such Thing As A Free plants release water vapor into the
Lunch” air through tiny openings in their
leaves. Both of these processes
Exploitation of nature, will always carry
contribute to the moisture in the
an ecological cost and will inevitably
atmosphere.
involve the conversion of resources from
useful to useless.
2. Condensation 5. Denitrification – Bacteria send
- After water vapor rises into the nitrogen back to the air (as N₂).
atmosphere, it cools down and
changes back into liquid form. This Carbon Cycle
process is called condensation, and • The Carbon cycle is the
it forms clouds in the sky as the tiny biogeochemical cycle by which
water droplets come together. carbon is exchanged among the
3. Precipitation biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere,
- Precipitation is when water, in the hydrosphere and atmosphere of
form of rain, snow, sleet, or hail, falls Earth.
from the clouds back to Earth. This 1. Carbon Dioxide in the
occurs when the clouds become Atmosphere (Air Carbon)- CO₂
heavy with water droplets that are in the atmosphere, the starting
too big to stay suspended in the air. point.
4. Collection & Runoff 2. Photosynthesis (Plants Absorb
- After precipitation, the water CO₂)- Plants absorb CO₂ via
collects in bodies of water like photosynthesis and make food
rivers, lakes, and oceans. Some of for themselves (and oxygen for
the water also flows over the ground us).
(this is called runoff), moving into 3. Consumption by Animals
streams, rivers, and eventually back (Eating Plants)- Animals eat
to the oceans, where the cycle can plants and absorb carbon, then
start again breathe out CO₂ back to the air.
4. Decomposition (Breaking
Nitrogen Cycle Down Dead Organisms)-
• The nitrogen cycle is the process Decomposers break down dead
by which nitrogen is converted in its plants and animals, sending
various chemical forms by biological carbon back into the soil and air.
and physical process. 5. Fossil Fuels (Long-Term Carbon
1. Nitrogen Fixation – Converts N₂ Storage)- Fossil fuels store
(air) into ammonia (NH₃) via lightning carbon for millions of years, then
or bacteria. burning them releases CO₂.
2. Ammonification – Decomposers 6. Ocean Absorption and Release
return nitrogen to the soil (as Oceans absorb and release
ammonia). carbon dioxide, helping balance
3. Nitrification – Bacteria convert the cycle.
ammonia (NH₃) → nitrites (NO₂⁻) →
nitrates (NO₃⁻).
4. Assimilation – Plants absorb
nitrates (NO₃⁻) to grow, animals eat
plants.
Phosphorus Cycle water, and carbon dioxide
• The phosphorous cycle from the air to create their
describes the movement of food (glucose). During this
phosphorous through process, oxygen is produced
lithosphere, hydrosphere and and released into the air.
biosphere. It is a sedimentary 2. Respiration: Humans,
cycle. animals, and plants breathe
1. Weathering of rocks releases in oxygen from the air. This
phosphorus into the soil and oxygen is used by their
water. bodies to release energy
2. Plants absorb phosphorus from food. In return, they
from the soil and use it to grow. breathe out carbon dioxide
3. Herbivores eat the plants and water vapor, which
and absorb phosphorus; plants will use for
carnivores eat the herbivores. photosynthesis.
4. Decomposers break down 3. Decomposition: When
dead plants and animals and plants and animals die,
release phosphorus back into decomposers (like fungi and
the soil. bacteria) break them down.
5. Phosphorus can also end up Oxygen is used in this
in water bodies, where aquatic process, and carbon dioxide
plants absorb it. is released back into the air.
6. Some phosphorus gets
locked away in sediment and Sulfur Cycle
rocks for long periods. • The sulphur cycle is the
collection of processes by
Oxygen Cycle which sulphur moves to and
• The oxygen cycle involves from minerals (including the
movement of oxygen and its waterways) and living
storage in different forms as well system.
as its oxidative reactions with 1. Sulfur in the Air: Sulfur
various elements. in the air mainly comes
• This cycle is important because from volcanoes and
it helps to shield Earth from when people burn fossil
majority of harmful Ultraviolet fuels like coal and oil.
(UV) radiation turning it to This releases sulfur
harmless heat before it reaches dioxide (SO₂), which can
earth’s surface. turn into sulfuric acid
1. Photosynthesis: Plants, (H₂SO₄) when mixed with
trees, algae, and some water vapor. This sulfuric
bacteria absorb sunlight, acid then falls as acid
 rain and can change the 4. Plants and Animals:
Earth’s surface. Plants take in sulfate ions
2. Decomposition: When from the soil and use
plants and animals die, them to create important
bacteria and fungi break molecules like proteins.
down their remains. As When animals eat plants,
they do this, they release sulfur moves through the
hydrogen sulfide (H₂S) food chain.
gas into the air and soil. 5. Return to the Air: Once
This is a key part of the animals and plants die,
sulfur cycle the sulfur in their bodies
3. Sulfur Bacteria: There can be released back into
are bacteria in the soil, the atmosphere as
like Thiobacillus, that hydrogen sulfide or
change hydrogen sulfide through the
into different sulfur decomposition process,
compounds. These repeating the cycle
compounds include
sulfate ions (SO₄²⁻),
which are then absorbed
by plants.