A SEMINAR ON THE

ECOSYSTEM
 ECOSYSTEM

 The term ‘ecosystem’ was described by

Tansley in 1935.
 An ecosystem is a self-regulating group of
biotic communities of species interacting
with their non-living environment
exchanging energy and matter.
 Now ecology is often defined as “the study
of ecosystem”.
 Characteristics of Ecosystem
 It is a major structural and functional unit of
Ecology.
 Its structure is related to its species diversity; the
more complex ecosystem have
species diversity and vice versa.
 The relative amount of energy needed to maintain
an ecosystem depend on its structure. The more
complex the structure, the lesser the energy it
needs to maintain itself.
 Characteristics of Ecosystem

 It matures by passing from less complex to

more complex states.
 Structural features
 Biotic structure
The plants, animals and microorganism present
in an ecosystem form the biotic component.
 Producers: They are mainly the green plants,
which can synthesize their food themselves by
making use of carbon dioxide present in the air
and water through the process ‘photo
autographs’ (auto=self; troph=food;
photo=light).
b) Consumers: all organisms which get their organic
food by feeding upon other organism are called
consumers, which are following types:
 Herbivores (plant eaters): e.g. Rabbit, insect,
man.
 Carnivores (meat eaters): e.g. snake, big fish
 Omnivores: e.g. humans, rat, fox etc.
 Detritivores: (Detritus feeders or saprotrophs)
c) Decomposers: They derive their nutrition
by breaking down the complex organic
molecules to simpler organic compound and
ultimately into inorganic nutrients.
e.g. bacteria, fungi etc.
 Abiotic structure
The physical and chemical component of an
ecosystem constitute its abiotic structure.
E.g.; climatic factors edaphic (soil) factors,
geographical factor, and toxic substances.
Factors:
 Physical factors: e.g. Sunlight and shades, solar
flux, temperature, maximum minimum
temperature, annual rainfall, wind, latitude
altitude, water etc.
 Chemical factors: e.g. essential nutrients
like- carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus,
hydrogen, oxygen and sulphur, level of
toxic substances and organic substances etc.
 Functional Attributes

The major functional attributes of an ecosystem are

as follows:
 Trophic structure, Food chain, and Food webs
 Energy flow
 Cycling of nutrients (biogeochemical cycles)
 Primary and secondary production
 Ecosystem development and regulation
 Trophic structure

The producers and consumers are arranged in

the ecosystem in a definite manner and their
inter-action along with population size are
expressed together as “Trophic structure”.
 each food levels is known as trophic level
and the amount of living matter at each
trophic level is known as sanding mass.
Food chain
The sequence of eating and being eaten in an
ecosystem is known as “food chain”.
e.g. Grass grasshopper frog snake
Hawk
 Types of food chain

 Grazing food chain: It starts with green

plants and culminates in carnivores.
e.g. Grass rabbit fox
 Detritus food chain: It starts with dead
organic matter which the detritivores and
decomposers consume.
e.g. detritus food chain
 Food web

Food web is a network of food chain where

different types of organism are connected at
different trophic levels, so that there are a
number of option of eating and being eaten
at each trophic levels.
 Significance of food chain and
food web
 Its play an important role in the “ecosystem”
because the most important function of energy
flow and nutrient cycling take place through them.
 Food chain help in maintaining and regulating the
population size of different animal .
 Food chain shows a unique property of biological
magnification of some chemical.
 Ecological Pyramids

Graphic representation of trophic structure

and function of an ecosystem, starting with
producers at the base and successive trophic
levels forming the apex is known as an
“ecological pyramid”.
 There are three main types of
ecological pyramids.
 Pyramid of numbers
 Pyramid of biomass
 Pyramid of energy
 Pyramid of numbers: They show the
relationship between producers,
herbivores and carnivores at successive
trophic levels in the terms of their number.
 In grassland ‘grasses’ are maximum in no.

It shows the a decrease toward apex,

as the primary consumers Herbivores (rabbit,

mice) are lesser in no. than the grasses

Secondary consumers (snakes and lizards) are less in

no. than the Herbivores

finally tertiary consumers (hawks, other birds) are less in

no. than the S.C.

Pyramid becomes ‘upright’.

 Pyramid of biomass: It’s show the
quantitative relationship of the standing
crops.
 Pyramid of energy: It’s give best picture
of overall nature of the ecosystem.
 TYPES OF ECOSYSTEM
ON THE BASIS OF ORGANIZATION PATTERN
THESE ARE CLASSIFIED BELOW –
 The Forest ecosystem
 The Grassland ecosystem
 The Desert ecosystem
 Aquatic ecosystems
 The Forest ecosystem
In India , the forest occupies roughly 19% of the total land
area.
Indian forest are of 11 types and are classified on the basis of
physiology, & habitat.
Components of forest ecosystem:
 Abiotic ( organic and inorganic substances such as-
temperature, rainfall, soil (minerals) ).
 Biotic ( herbivores like ants, beetles, bugs, spiders etc.).
 The Grassland ecosystem

It occupy about 24% of the earth’s surface.

Grassland are of 8 types that classified on the basis
of the floral characteristics.
Components of Grassland ecosystem:
 Abiotic ( Nutrients present in soil and
atmosphere Like element (C,H,O,N,P,S, etc) ).
 Biotic ( herbivores like ants, beetles, bugs,
spiders etc.).
 The Desert ecosystem

 They occupy about 17%of land area.

 Desert has poor vegetation with a very low
amount of dead organic matter.
 Aquatic ecosystems
A pond is a good example of a small self-sufficient
and self-regulating ecosystem.
Location, size, depth and substratum of a pond
influence the biology of pond ecosystem.
Components of aquatic ecosystem:
 Abiotic ( organic (C,H,O,N,P,Ca&S) and
inorganic substances such as- temperature, light,
water, soil ).
 Biotic ( herbivores like ants, beetles, bugs,
spiders etc.).
 The Marine ecosystem

 It cover about the three quarters of our

planet.
 The marine regions are divided between
coral reefs, estuaries and oceans.
 Ocean represent the largest and most divers
of the ecosystem.
PRESENTED BY
SONY