ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Spring 2020
OUTLINE
 Definition of Ecology and Ecosystems

 Types of Ecosystems

 Autotrophs and Heterotrophs

 Herbivores, Carnivores, Omnivores and

Amphibians

 Food Chains, Food Webs and Trophic Levels

https://landscape.soilweb.ca/landscape-evolution/
DEFINITION
 The terms “ecology”, “environment” and
“organism” are very important

 Ecology: The scientific study of how living

organisms (plants, animals, microorganisms) fit
into their natural environment.

 Ecosystem: a biological environment consisting of

all the organisms living in a particular area, as
well as the non living physical components of the
environment with which the organisms interact,
such as air, soil, water and sunlight.
STRUCTURE OF ECOSYSTEM

 The composition of biological community

including species, numbers, biomass, life
history and distribution in space

 The quantity and distribution of non living

materials like nutrients, water etc.

 The conditions of existence such as

temperatures, light etc
 Abiotic components are mainly of two types:

(a) Climatic Factors:

Which include rain, temperature, light, wind, humidity
etc.

(b) Edaphic Factors:

Which
What include
are thesoil, pH, topography
functions minerals etc.
of important
factors in abiotic components? 
FUNCTIONS OF ABIOTIC COMPONENTS

 Soil is a mixture of weathered rock fragments, mineral

particles, organic matter, and living organisms. Soils
provide nutrients, water, a home, and a structural
growing medium for organisms.

 The atmosphere provides carbon di­oxide for

photosynthesis and oxygen for respiration. The processes
of evaporation, transpiration and precipitation cycle
water between the atmosphere and the Earth’s surface.

 Solar radiation is used to heat the atmosphere and to

evaporate and transpire water into the atmosphere.

 Most living tissue is composed of a very high percentage

of water, and even exceeding 90%. The protoplasm of a
very few cells can survive if their water content drops
below 10%, and most are killed if it is less than 30-50%.
BIOTIC COMPONENTS/CONSUMERS

1. Consumers are living organisms in the ecosystem that get

their energy from consuming other organisms.
Conceptually, consumers are further subdivided by what
they eat.

2. Herbivores eat producers, carnivores eat other animals and

omnivores eat both. Along with producers and decomposers,
consumers are part of what is known as food chains and webs,
where energy and nutrient transfer can be mapped out.

3. Consumers can only harvest about 10 percent of the energy

contained in what they eat, so there tends to be less biomass
at each stage as you move up the food chain.
 Primary First-Order Consumers or Herbivores
 Secondary Consumers or Second Order Consumers
or Primary Carnivores
 Tertiary Consumers or Third Order Consumers
 Quaternary Consumers or Fourth Order Consumers
or Omnivores
DECOMPOSERS
1. Decomposers are the living component of the ecosystem that
breaks down waste material and dead organisms. Examples of
decomposers include earthworms, dung beetles and many
species of fungi and bacteria.
2. The decomposers are known as Saprotrophs (i.e., sapros =
rotten, trophos = feeder).
3. They perform a vital recycling function, returning nutrients
incorporated into dead organisms to the soil where plants can
take them up again.
4. In this process, they also harvest the last of the sunlight energy
initially absorbed by producers. Decomposers represent the
final step in many of the cyclical ecosystem processes.
AUTOTROPHS AND HETEROPTROPHS
 Living things are divided according to how
they obtain food.

 Autotrophs: Living things which directly make

their food from the environment. E.g. plants.

 Heterotrophs: Living things which get their

food from other plants or animals.
Concept of Ecosystem
An ecosystem is a natural unit consisting of all plants,
animals and micro-organisms (biotic factors) in an area
functioning together with all of the non-living physical
(abiotic) factors of the environment.

In simple words Ecosystem is the components and interaction

between living and non-living factors of an area.
TYPES OF ECOSYSTEM

Terrestrial ecosystems Aquatic ecosystems

 Tropical rainforest  Swamp and Marsh

 Temperate evergreen
 Lake and stream
forest
 Temperate deciduous
 Open ocean

forest  Algal beds and reefs

 Boreal forest
 Estuaries and
 Savannah
brackish waters
 Tundra

 Extreme desert, rock,

sand and ice
 Cultivated land
FOREST ECOSYSTEM

 High rainfall
 Large number of organism and flora

 Highly diverse population

 Stability of ecosystem is very sensitive.

Features of forest ecosystem

 Forest canopy

 Forest floor

 Forest soil
DESERT ECOSYSTEM
 High Temperature, intense sunlight and low
water
 Flora and fauna are very poorly developed
and scarce
 Organisms are xeric adaptive

 Scarely populated

Sand desert, stony desert, rock desert, plateau

desert, mountain desert, cold desert
GRASSLAND ECOSYSTEM
 Marginal rainfall
 Vegetation is dominated by grasses

 Unimproved wild-plant communities

 Densely populated

Features:
Temperature, Precipitation, Humidity,
Topography, unadaptive plants and animals
AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM

 Low temperature and sunlight

 Soil and vegetation is submerged

 Flora and fauna had adapted

 Densely populated

Function:
 Recycles nutrients

 Purify water

 Responsible for proper rainfall

 Recharge ground water

Levels of Organization in an
Ecosystem
Organism is a living thing
Species is defined as a group of
organisms capable of
interbreeding and producing
fertile offspring.
Population is a group of
organisms of the same species
living in a defined area

Community is a group of
interacting organisms sharing
an environment

Ecosystem is a system of
interaction among all
organisms of an area and their
interactions with the abiotic
environment
FOOD CHAIN

The feeding of one organism upon another in a

sequence of food transfers is known as a food chain.
Another definition is the chain of transfer of energy
(which typically comes from the sun) from one
organism to another.

Trophic Level is the feeding position in a food

chain.
CONT’D
FOOD WEB
Most animals are part of more than one food chain and eat
more than one kind of food in order to meet their food and
energy requirements.
A food web is a set of interconnected food chains by which
energy and materials circulate within an ecosystem
FOOD WEB
 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN FOOD CHAIN AND FOOD
WEB

FOOD CHAIN FOOD WEB

(just one path of energy) (everything is connected!)
FOOD CHAINS FOLLOW A FOOD WEBS SHOW HOW PLANTS & ANIMALS
SINGLE PATH AS ANIMALS EAT ARE INTERCONNECTED BY DIFFERENT
EACH OTHER. PATHS.
FOOD WEBS show how plants and animals are connected in many ways to help them all
survive. FOOD CHAINS follow just one path as animals find food.
 Assimilation: the biomass of the present
trophic level after accounting for the
energy lost due to incomplete ingestion of
food, energy used for respiration, and energy
lost as waste
 Net consumer productivity: energy content
available to the organisms of the next trophic
level
 Net production efficiency (NPE): measure
of the ability of a trophic level to convert the
energy it receives from the previous trophic
level into biomass
 Trophic level transfer efficiency (TLTE):
energy transfer efficiency between two
successive trophic levels
ENERGY LOST IN FOOD CHAIN
ENERGY FLOWS THROUGH
ECOSYSTEMS
COMMUNITY STRUCTURE

 Physical appearance: Relative sizes,

stratification and distribution of its population

 Species diversity or richness: The number of

different species

 Species abundance: The number of

individuals of each species

 Niche structure: The number of ecological

niches.
FACTORS OF ECOLOGICAL STABILITY

 Inertia or persistence: The ability of a living

system to resist being disturbed or altered

 Consistency: The ability of a living system

such as a population to keep its numbers
within the limits imposed by available
resources

 Resilience: The ability of a living system to

bounce back after an external disturbance
that is not too drastic