SCIENCE AND
NATURAL SYSTEMS
Slides adapted from:
Living in the Environment
Third Canadian Edition
G. Tyler Miller, Jr./Dave Hackett
What is science and scientific
reasoning?
ISSUE: How
do natural Food chains and food webs
systems Energy flow though ecosystems
work? Biogeochemical cycles (Carbon
Outcome: Describe
how matter and cycle)
energy travel through
ecosystems Human influences
What can nature tell us?
What is
science?
MonkeySee (2013, February 4). What Is Science? [Video File]
Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDQ8ggroeE4
A scientist makes an observation and
asks questions of some phenomenon
The scientist formulates a
hypothesis, a statement that attempts
to explain the scientific question.
The The hypothesis is used to generate
scientific predictions, which are specific
method statements that can be directly and
unequivocally tested.
The test results either support or
reject the hypothesis
1-4
Observation: Nothing happens when I try to turn on my flashlight.
Question: Why didn't the light come on?
Hypothesis/Prediction: Maybe the batteries are dead./If I change the
batteries, the flashlight will work
Test hypothesis with an experiment: Put in new batteries and try to turn
on the flashlight.
Result: Flashlight still does not work.
New hypothesis/Prediction: Maybe the bulb is burned out/If I change the
bulb, the flashlight will work
Experiment: Put in a new bulb.
Result: Flashlight works.
Conclusion: New hypothesis is verified.
There are
different Manipulative experiment Natural experiment
Can show causation Cannot show causation
ways to test
hypotheses
Can show causation Cannot show causation 1-7
Manipulative experiment Natural experiment
There are Can show causation Cannot show causation
different Manipulative experiments yield the
ways to test strongest evidence, Can show
causation, Not always possible to use
hypotheses Natural or correlational tests show
real-world complexity, Cannot show
causation
One-way flow of high
quality energy
What
sustains
Cycling of matter
life on
earth? Gravity
Energy: Provides the force to hold structures together, tear
them apart and move matter from one place to another
High quality energy: Concentrated, has great ability to do
useful work.
What Low quality energy: Dispersed, has little ability to do
useful work
sustain life Matter: anything that has mass and takes up space and is
composed of tiny, moving particles, separated by space
on earth? and/or held together by energy
Matter cycles between abiotic and biotic components
Five major cycles:
Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Sulfur and Water (hydrologic)
The Law of Conservation of Matter:
Atoms cannot be created / destroyed, but
can change form (physical/chemical)
The 1st Law of Thermodynamics:
Energy cannot be created / destroyed, but
convert from one form to another
Energy input = Energy output
The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
As energy is converted from one form to
another, some of it is degraded into heat,
a less usable form that disperses into the
environment
Light bulb. [Photography]. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica
ImageQuest.
Made of matter
Stores high quality energy
What happens when we burn it
Matter is neither created nor
destroyed
It changes physical or chemical form
Energy is neither created nor
destroyed
Input=output
Quality of energy degrades with
each transformation
Candle. [Photography]. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica
ImageQuest.
What are the 3 rules that we
cannot break in nature?
What are their implications for
the environment and organisms
living in it?
Lion. [Photography]. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica ImageQuest.
http://quest.eb.com/search/149_2065508/1/149_2065508/cite
Great White Shark. [Photography]. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica
ImageQuest.
http://quest.eb.com/search/139_1916870/1/139_1916870/cite
TIGER . [Photography]. Retrieved from Encyclopædia Britannica
ImageQuest.
300 trout are needed to
support one man for a year.
The trout, in turn, must
consume 90,000 frogs, that
must consume 27 million
grasshoppers that live off of
1,000 tons of grass.
- G. Tyler Miller, Jr., American Chemist
(1971)
The basics
of life
Life support
system of a
single organism
depends on
energy flow and
cycling of matter
Kern, R. (2013, November 6). The Food Chain [Video File]. Retrieved
from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZOvqYypOuo
Energy from food passes from one organism
to another based on their Trophic Level
Definition: An organism’s position in a food
Food Chains- chain, which is determined by its feeding
relationships
The Path of First Trophic Level: Producers
Energy Flow Second Trophic Level: Primary Consumers
Third Trophic Level: Secondary Consumers
Decomposers are present at all trophic levels
Food chain - simplified (linear) Food web – species feed on more
species interaction than one species
1st
Trophic
Level
2nd
Trophic
Level
3rd
Trophic
Level
?
Trophic
Level
Food chain and food web. Photograph. Britannica ImageQuest. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 25 May 2016.
http://quest.eb.com/search/309_1155884/1/309_1155884/cite. Accessed 19 Sep 2016.
Humans Antarctic food
Blue whale Sperm whale
web
Fig. 4-19 from
Elephant seal
living in the
Crabeater seal environment
Killer whale
Leopard seal
Adelie penguin Emperor penguin
Squid
Petrel
Fish
Carnivorous
Carnivorous zooplankton
zooplankton
Krill Herbivorous
zooplankton
Phytoplankton
Copyright © 2014 Nelson Education Ltd.
Percent of usable energy
transferred as biomass from one
trophic level to the next
Because of low transfer
Ecological efficiencies, primary
productivity is the major
efficiency
limiting factor in any ecosystem
to energy availability from one
trophic level to the next
Primary Productivity: amount of energy that plants
capture and assimilate in a given period of time minus
amount they use for their own cellular respiration
Usable energy available
at each trophic level
(in kilocalories)
Heat
Decomposers
Heat
Heat
10
Heat
100
Assumes 10% ecological efficiency and 100 % available from primary producers
Numbers show the percentage of energy captured by each successive trophic level
Ecological Pyramids
Graphically represent the relative
energy value of each trophic level
Important feature - large amount of
energy is lost as heat between
trophic levels
Three main types
Pyramid of numbers
Pyramid of biomass
Pyramid of energy
Pyramid of Numbers
Illustrates the number of organisms at each trophic level
Fewer organisms occupy each
successive level
Does not indicate:
biomass of organisms at each
level
amount of energy transferred
between levels
Pyramid of Biomass
Biomass: measure
of the total amount
Illustrates the total biomassof living material
at each successive trophic ~90% reduction in
level
biomass through
trophic levels
100 to 10
Pyramid of Energy
Illustrates how much energy is present at each trophic level and how much is
transferred to
the next level
Most energy dissipates between
trophic levels
Lost as heat and energy to
maintain each level
Explains why there are so few
trophic levels
Science Learning Hub (2017). The carbon. Retrieved
Biogeochemi from
cal Cycles: http://sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/The-Ocean-in-Acti
on/Sci-Media/Interactive/Carbon-cycle
Carbon The Carbon Cycle 3D Animation (2014, October 24).
[Video file]. Retrieved from
cycle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d70iDxBtnas
Science is necessary to help us understand
how the world works
Life on earth relies on biogeochemical
cycles (i.e., cycling of matter) and
unidirectional energy flow
A food web is a representation of the flow of
Conclusions energy and materials (matter) through an
ecosystem and helps us indicate how a
community is organized
Human interference in biogeochemical
cycles, for example overexploitation of
natural resources often leads to
environmental degradation or unexpected
consequences
