ECOSYSTEMS

Earth’s life support system consists of four major main spherical

systems that interact with one another:
1) The Atmosphere (air)
2) The Hydrosphere(water)
3) The Geosphere (rock, soil and sediment)
4) The Biosphere (living things)

1.THE ATMOSPHERE:
• The atmosphere is a thin spherical envelope of gases surrounding the
earth’s surface.
• Its inner layer, the troposphere extends only about 17 km above sea level
at the tropics and about 7 kms above the Earth’s north and south poles.
• it contains air that we breathe consisting mostly of nitrogen (78% of total
volume) and oxygen (21%). Most of the remaining 1% of air consists of
water vapour, CO2, and methane all of which are called greenhouse gases
which absorb and release energy that warms the inner layer of the
atmosphere.
• Without these gases, the earth would be too cold for existence of life as we
know.
• The next layer, reaching 17 to50 kms above the earth’s surface is called
stratosphere.
• Its lower portion holds enough ozone (O3) gas to filter out 95% of the sun’s
harmful UV Radiation. This global sunscreen allows life to exist on the
surface of the planet.
2.THE HYDROSPHERE:

• the hydrosphere consists of all the WATER on or near earth’s surface. It

is found as water vapor in the atmosphere, as liquid water on the surface
 of the earth and underground, and as ice –polar ice, icebergs, glaciers ,
and ice frozen soil layers.
• The oceans which cover 71% of the globe contain about 97% of the
earth’s water.

3.THE GEOSPHERE:

• The Geosphere consists of the earth’s intensely hot core, a thick

mantle composed mostly of rock, and a thin outer crust.
• Most of the Geosphere is in the earth’s interior.
• Its upper portions contain nonrenewable fossil fuels coal, oil and
natural gas and minerals that we use, as well as renewable soil
chemicals (nutrients) that organisms need to live, grow, reproduce.

• 4.THE BIOSPHERE
• It consists of the parts of atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere
where life is found.

CONCEPT OF ECOSYSTEM

• The living community of plant and animals in any area altogether with the
nonliving components of the environment such as soil, air and water,
constitute the ecosystem.
• The term ecosystem was first proposed by AG Tansley in 1935.
• Its eco part means – environment and the system part mean a complex of
coordinated units.
• Ecology is the science that focuses on how organisms interact with one
another and with their nonliving environment of matter and energy.
• Ecologists study interactions within and among five of these levels-
organisms, populations, communities ecosystems and biosphere ( living ).
 Size : an ecosystem maybe as large as the ocean or a forest or it may be
as small as an aquarium jar containing tropical fish , green plants and
snails.
• All the ecosystems are connected to one another. for eg: river ecosystem
finally mixes into ecosystem of salt water of sea.

KINDS OF ECOSYSTEM:

1: NATURAL ECOSYSTEM 2: ARTIFICIAL ECOSYSTEM

1: NATURAL ECOSYSTEM:
• These types of ecosystems operate by themselves without any major
interference by man
• Based upon the kind of habitat these are further classified as
• i) TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEM- such as forests, grasslands, desserts
etc.

• ii) AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM: Which maybe further classified as

• a) FRESH WATER ECOSYSTEM: LOTIC ECOSYSTEM
(Running waters like
streams and rivers)

LENTIC ECOSYSTEM
(Standing water like
pond)
b) MARINE ECOSYSTEM: these include saltwater bodies which
maybe deep bodies as an ocean or shallow ones as a sea.

2. ARTIFICIAL ECOSYSTEM: ecosystem that requires

interference by man for its operation.
eg: Aquarium.
 STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF ECOSYSTEM:
STRUCTURAL ASPECT:

FUNCTINAL ASPECTS-
1) Food chains
2) Diversity – interlinkages between organisms
3) Nutrient cycles and biogeochemical cycles
4) Evolution.
 PRODUCERS CONSUMERS AND DECOMPOSERS:
An ecosystem consists of two biotic components:
a) AUTOTROPHIC COMPONENTS: They are self-nourishing
components in which fixation of light energy, use of simple
inorganic substances and manufacture of complex materials takes
place.
b) HETEROTROPHIC COMPONENTS:
• These are other nourishing components and consume the products of
the autotrophs
• They also attack the dead bodies of the organisms.
• The interaction of autotrophic and heterotrophic components is
universal feature of all the ecosystems whether they are located on land,
in fresh water or in the ocean.
• From structural viewpoint three biotic components have been
recognized:
i) PRODUCERS:
• Producers or the autotrophic organisms are those living organisms of
the ecosystem that utilize sunlight as their energy source and simple
inorganic materials like water CO2, and salt etc to produce their own
food.
• Producers are largely photosynthetic plants, and their kind varies with
their kind of ecosystem.
• For eg: in a terrestrial ecosystem the major autotrophs are the flowering
plants.
• In the ocean they are the microscopic phytoplankton. (aquatic plants)
• All producers support certain consumers and decomposers and the entire
environment as they produce oxygen.
ii) CONSUMERS:
• Consumers are those living organisms that ingest other organisms and
are therefore called heterotrophs.
• They derive their food directly or indirectly from producers or the
green plants.
• Consumers are classified as:
a) primary consumers: in ecosystem primary consumers are
herbivores which feed directly upon producers.
• in forest these are insects, amphibian, reptiles, birds, mammals.
• herbivorous animals include eg: hare, deer, elephants that live on
plant life.
• in grasslands there are herbivores eg: blackbuck that feed on
grass.
• in the sea there are small fish that live on algae and other plants.
b) secondary consumers:

• they are carnivorous animals that feed on primary consumers.

• In forests the carnivorous animals are tiger, leopards, jackals
etc.
• In the sea carnivorous fish live on other fish and marine
animals.

c) Tertiary consumers:

• these are omnivorous animals which feeds both primary

consumers and secondary consumers.
• this category also includes sometimes detrivores who feed on
the decaying organic matter.
 iii) DECOMPOSERS: Decomposers or detrivores or saprobes or
saprophytes are also heterotrophs who depend on dead organic matter
for their food.
The role of decomposers is very important in an ecosystem, because
without their activity the entire cycle of minerals will get blocked.
ENERGY FLOW IN AN ECOSYSTEM:

• Biological activities require sun as the main source of energy.

• For eg: a plant uses solar energy in a leaf to store chemical energy in a
leaf. a caterpillar eats the leaf, a robin eats the caterpillar, and a hawk eats
the robin. Leaf -→caterpillar---→robin--→ hawk
• Decomposers and detritus feeders consume the waste and remains of all
members of this and other food chains and return their nutrients to the soil
for reuse by producers.
• Ecologists assign every type of organism in an ecosystem to a feeding
level or trophic level, depending on its source of food or nutrients.
• The chemical energy stored as nutrients in the bodies of organisms flows
through ecosystem from one trophic level (feeding) level to another.
• Leaf -→caterpillar---→robin--→ hawk
1st trophic level 2nd 3rd 4th
 FOOD CHAINS:
• A sequence of organisms, each of which serves as source of nutrients
or energy for the next, is called a food chain.
• Organic nutrients are transferred from producers to consumers and then
to decomposers as organisms eat and in turn, they are been eaten by
other organisms.
• This series of organism eating one and being eaten by other is called
food chain.

General representation of food chain:

Plant Herbivore carnivore1 carnivore 2

Types of food chains: there are 3 types of food chain

1. Grazing food chain: the grazing food chains starts from green plants
and goes from herbivores to primary carnivores and then to
secondary carnivores and so on.
Autotroph Herbivore primary carnivore secondary
carnivore.

2. Parasitic food chain:

• It goes from large organisms to smaller ones without killing.
• Hence the larger animals are the hosts and smaller animals which
fulfill their nutritional requirements from the hosts are considered
as parasites.
3. Detritus food chain:
• The dead organic remains including metabolic wastes are termed
as detritus .
 • The detritus of ecosystem go to the microorganisms and finally to
detritus feeding organism known as detrivore.
• The food chain so formed is called the detritus food chain.
• Such ecosystems are thus less dependent on direct solar energy.
• These depend chiefly on the influx of organic matter produced in
another system.
Food chain:
• A food chain is divided into trophic levels comprised of all the organisms
that obtain their food by an identical number of steps .a given species
population may have one or more than one trophic levels according to
source of energy actually assimilated.
• At each transfer of energy from one generation to another , a large part of
the energy is degraded into heat.
• The producers or the autotrophs or the green plants comprise the first
trophic level.
• The herbivores , those organisms that consume plants , comprise the
second trophic level.
• Carnivores that consume the herbivores constitute the third trophic level.
• There maybe higher trophic levels as well
• Carnivores which consume third level carnivores comprise the fourth
trophic level and so on
All food chains begin at producer level and all end at the decomposer
level.

FOOD WEB
• In most ecosystem, many different food chains possible and this
overlap and are intertwined with one another to form what is called
a community food web.
• Food web is simply a diagram of all the trophic relationships among
and between its component species.
• A food web is generally composed of many food chains each of
which represents a single pathway up to the food web.
• The populations within the food web are linked by the various food
chains through which organic nutrients are transferred.
• The alternative pathway in a food web help to maintain the stability
of living community.
• Example: if the rabbits in some area decrease in number , because of
some infectious disease , the owls might be expected to go hungry .
• Under these circumstances the owls transfer their attention from
rabbits to mice.
• This reduces the danger of surviving rabbits , and these primary
consumers have better chance to rebuilt their number.
• The greater the number of alternate pathways a food web has , the
more stable is the community of living things make up the web.
• If the links in the chain that make up the web of life are disrupted
due to human activities that lead to the loss or extinction of species ,
the web breaks down.
• FOOD WEB IN TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEM
• In ecosystems , some consumers feed on a single species , but most
consumers have multiple food sources.
• Some species are prey to single kind of predator, but many species
in an ecosystem are prey to several parasites and predators.
• As a result individual food chains become interconnected to form a
food web.
 • Eg: five linear grazing food chain:
• 1.Grass --→ grasshopper---→ Hawk
• 2. Grass --→ grasshopper---→Lizard --→ Hawk
• 3. Grass -→ rabbit --→ hawk
• 4. Grass -→ mouse --→ hawk
• 5. Grass --→ mouse--→ snake--→ hawk

Food web:

Significance of food chain and food web

1. Maintain stability of the ecosystem.
2. Information on Diversity of organisms ecosystem
3. Feeding habits of organisms in the ecosystem.