Vidarbha Youth Welfare Society’s

Prof Ram Meghe College of Engineering & Management

Badnera - Amravati
(Approved by AICTE, DTE & Affiliated to SGBAU, Amravati)

College Code EN 1128

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UNIT 3 : ECOSYSTEM
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 CONCEPT OF ECOSYSTEM
Ecology is often defined as “ The study of ecosystems.”
The term Ecology is derived from the greek words Oikos – home + Logos – Study.
So ecology deals with the study of organisms in their natural home interacting with
their surroundings.

An ecosystem is a self regulating group of biotic communities of species inter -

acting with one another and with their non living environment exchanging energy
and matter.

Various kinds of life supporting systems like forests, grasslands, oceans, lakes,
rivers, deserts etc. are known as Ecosystems.

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STRUCTURAL FEATURES OF ECOSYSTEM

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 ECOSYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS
Structure of an Ecosystem:
The structure of ecosystem consists of two components:
1. Biotic Component or living component.
2. Abiotic Component or non living component.

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 STRUCTURAL FEATURES

I. Biotic Structure : The plants, animals and microorganisms

present in an ecosystem form the biotic
component.
a) Producers : Mainly the green plants also known as photo
autotrophs.
( Photo = Light, Auto = Self, Troph= Food.)

b) Consumers : Organisms which get their food by feeding upon other

organisms are called consumers.
i) Herbivores : They feed directly on producers.
They are known as Primary Consumers

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 Structural Features

ii) Carnivores : They feed on other consumers. They are called

Secondary Consumers.
If they feed on other Carnivores they are known
as Tertiary Consumers.
iii) Omnivores : They feed on both plants and animals . E.g.
Humans, Rat, Fox, Many birds.

c) Decomposers : They derive their nutrition by breaking down

the complex molecules into simpler organic
compounds.Various Bacteria and Fungi are
decomposers.

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 FUNCTIONAL ATTRIBUTES
1. food chain,food webs and trophic structure

2. Energy flow

3. Cycling nutrients

4. Primary and secondary production

5. Ecosystem development and regulation

ENERGY FLOW

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 What is a food chain?

• A food chain is series of step in which

organisms transfer energy by eating and being
eaten.

Energy flows through an ecosystem in one

direction from producers to various levels of
consumers

The transfer of energy from the sun to

producer to primary consumer then to higher
order consumers can be shown in a FOOD
CHAIN.
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 TROPHIC STRUCTURE

The producers and consumers are arranged in the

ecosystem in a definite manner and their inter -
actions along with population size are expressed as
Trophic Structure.
Each food level is known as Trophic level.

Each food level is known as Trophic level and the

amount of living matter at each trophic level at a
given time is known as standing crop or standing
biomass.

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 WHAT IS FOOD WEB
Food web is a network of food chains
where different types of organisms are
connected at different trophic levels, so
that there are a number of options of eat-
ing and being eaten at each trophic level.
Food webs give greater stability to the
ecosystem. Ina linear food chain, if one
species becomes extinct then the species
in other trophic levels are also affected.
But here, there are number of options
available at each tropic level so if one
species is affected, it does not affect other
trophic levels.
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 SIGNIFICANCE OF FOOD CHAINS AND FOOD WEBS

• Two most important functions of energy

flow and nutrient cycling takes place through
them.

• The food chains also help in maintaining

and regulating the population size of different
animals thus maintaining ecological balance.

• Food chains show unique property of

biological magnification i.e, passing of
chemicals in the form of pesticides from one
trophic level to another.
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 ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
ENERGY PYRAMID

Graphic Representations Of
The Relative Amounts of
Energy or Matter At Each
Trophic Level
May be:
Energy Pyramid
Biomass Pyramid
Pyramid of Numbers

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PYRAMID OF ENERGY
BIOMASS
PYRAMID

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An energy pyramid follows the 10% rule – only 10% of
the energy available
at one trophic level is transferred to the next
trophic level.

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 PYRAMID OF
NUMBERS
It represents the number of
individual organisms at each
trophic level.
We may have upright or inverted
pyramid of numbers depending upon
the type of ecosystem.

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 Carbon Cycle
• All living things are made of carbon. Carbon is also a part of the ocean,
air, and even rocks. Because the Earth is a dynamic place, carbon does
not stay still. It is on the move!
• Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas and traps heat in the atmosphere.
Without it and other greenhouse gases, Earth would be a frozen world.
But humans have burned so much fuel that there is about 30% more
carbon dioxide in the air today than there was about 150 years ago, and
Earth is becoming a warmer place.
• This increase in CO2 has caused an imbalance in the Natural Cycle and
world today is facing the serious problem of Global Warming due to
enhanced CO2 emissions

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 NITROGEN CYCLE
Nitrogen is present in the atmosphere as N2 in large amount (78%).
It is either fixed by the process of lightening or biologically by some bacteria.

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 NITROGEN CYCLE

The Nitrogen is taken up by plants and used in metabolism for biosynthesis

of amino acids, proteins, vitamins etc. and passes through the food chain.

After death of the plants and animals , the organic nitrogen in dead tissues is
decomposed by several groups of ammonifying and nitrifying bacteria which
convert them into ammonia, nitrites and nitrates which are again used by
plants.

Some bacteria converts nitrates into molecular nitrogen or N2 which is

released back into the atmosphere and the cycle goes on.

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 Phosphorus Cycle
Phosphorus cycle is another important nutrient cycle.
The reservoir of Phosphorus lies in the rocks, fossils etc.which is extracted
by the man for using it as a fertilizer..
Farmers use the phosphate fertilizers indiscriminately and as a result
excess phosphates are lost as run off.

A good proportion of phosphates moving with surface run off reaches

the oceans and are lost into the deep sediments.

Our limited supply of phosphorus lying in the phosphate rocks of this

earth are overexploited by man and a large part is taken out of the normal
cycle due to loss into oceans.
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 Primary Production :
Primary production of an ecosystem is defined as the rate at which
radiant energy is converted in to organic substances by Photosynthesis
or chemo synthesis by the primary producers.
Primary productions of an ecosystem depends upon the solar radiations,
availability of water and nutrients and upon the types of plants and their
chlorophyll content.
Ecosystem Gross Primary Productivity
(K Cal/m2/yr)
Deserts and Tundra 200
Open Oceans 1000
Grass lands 2,500
Moist Temp. Forests 8000
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 Secondary Production :

The food synthesised by green plants through photosynthesis is the

primary production which is eaten by herbivores. The plant energy
is used up for producing organic matter of the herbivores, which in
turn is used up by the carnivores.

The amount of organic matter stored by the herbivores or carnivores is

known as secondary production. The energy stored at consumer level for
use by the next trophic level is thus defined as secondary production.

The energy stored at consumer level for use by the next tropic level
is thus defined as secondary production.

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