Introduction - What is an Ecosystem?

An ecosystem consists of the biological community that occurs in some locale,

and the physical and chemical factors that make up its non-living or abiotic
environment. There are many examples of ecosystems -- a pond, a forest, an
estuary, a grassland. The boundaries are not fixed in any objective way, although
sometimes they seem obvious, as with the shoreline of a small pond. Usually the
boundaries of an ecosystem are chosen for practical reasons having to do with the
goals of the particular study.

The study of ecosystems mainly consists of the study of certain processes that
link the living, or biotic, components to the non-living, or abiotic, components.
Energy transformations and bio-geochemical cycling are the main processes that
comprise the field of ecosystem ecology. As we learned earlier, ecology generally
is defined as the interactions of organisms with one another and with the
environment in which they occur. We can study ecology at the level of the
individual, the population, the community, and the ecosystem.

Studies of individuals are concerned mostly about physiology, reproduction,

development or behavior, and studies of populations usually focus on the habitat
and resource needs of individual species, their group behaviors, population
growth, and what limits their abundance or causes extinction. Studies of
communities examine how populations of many species interact with one another,
such as predators and their prey, or competitors that share common needs or
resources.

In ecosystem ecology we put all of this together and, insofar as we can, we try to
understand how the system operates as a whole. This means that, rather than
worrying mainly about particular species, we try to focus on major functional
aspects of the system. These functional aspects include such things as the
amount of energy that is produced by photosynthesis, how energy or materials
flow along the many steps in a food chain, or what controls the rate of
decomposition of materials or the rate at which nutrients are recycled in the
system.

Ecosystems are functional units consisting of living things in a given area, non-
living chemical and physical factors of their environment, linked together through
nutrient cycle and energy flow.

Central to the ecosystem concept is the idea that living organisms interact with
every other element in their local environment. Eugene Odum, a founder of
ecology, stated: "Any unit that includes all of the organisms (ie: the "community")
in a given area interacting with the physical environment so that a flow of energy
leads to clearly defined trophic structure, biotic diversity, and material cycles (i.e.:
exchange of materials between living and nonliving parts) within the system is an
ecosystem."
The term ecosystem was coined in 1930 by Roy Clapham to mean the combined
physical and biological components of an environment. British ecologist Arthur
Tansley later refined the term, describing it as "The whole system, … including not
only the organism-complex, but also the whole complex of physical factors
forming what we call the environment".
Components of an Ecosystem
An ecosystem comprises of two basic components
• Abiotic components and
• Biotic components
The relationship between the biotic components and abiotic components of an
ecosystem is called 'holocoenosis'.

ABIOTIC COMPONENTS BIOTIC COMPONENTS

Sunlight Primary producers
Temperature Herbivores
Precipitation Carnivores
Water or moisture Omnivores
Soil or water chemistry (e.g., P, NH4+) Detritivores

Abiotic Components
These include the non-living, physico - chemical factors such as air, water, soil
and the basic elements and compounds of the environment. Abiotic factors are
broadly classified under three categories. Climatic factors which include the
climatic regime and physical factors of the environment like light, humidity,
atmospheric temperature, wind, etc.
Edaphic factors which are related to the structure and composition of soil
including its physical and chemical properties, like soil and its types, soil profile,
minerals, organic matter, soil water, soil organisms. Inorganic substances like
water, carbon, sulphur, nitrogen, phosphorus and so on. Organic substances like
proteins, lipids, carbohydrates, humic substances etc.

Biotic Components
It comprises the living part of the environment, which includes the association of a
number of interrelated populations belonging to different species in a common
environment. The populations are that of animal community, plant community
and microbial community. Biotic community is distinguished into autotrophs,
heterotrophs and saprotrophs.

By and large, this set of environmental factors is important almost everywhere, in

all ecosystems.

Usually, biological communities include the "functional groupings" shown above. A

functional group is a biological category composed of organisms that perform
mostly the same kind of function in the system; for example, all the
photosynthetic plants or primary producers form a functional group. Membership
in the functional group does not depend very much on who the actual players
(species) happen to be, only on what function they perform in the ecosystem.
Processes of Ecosystems
This figure with the plants, zebra, lion, and so forth illustrates the two main ideas
about how ecosystems function: ecosystems have energy flows and ecosystems
cycle materials. These two processes are linked, but they are not quite the same
(see Illustration 1).

Illustration 1: Energy flows and material cycles.

Energy enters the biological system as light energy, or photons, is transformed

into chemical energy in organic molecules by cellular processes including
photosynthesis and respiration, and ultimately is converted to heat energy. This
energy is dissipated, meaning it is lost to the system as heat; once it is lost it
cannot be recycled. Without the continued input of solar energy, biological
systems would quickly shut down. Thus the earth is an open system with respect
to energy.
Elements such as carbon, nitrogen, or phosphorus enter living organisms in a
variety of ways. Plants obtain elements from the surrounding atmosphere, water,
or soils. Animals may also obtain elements directly from the physical environment,
but usually they obtain these mainly as a consequence of consuming other
organisms. These materials are transformed biochemically within the bodies of
organisms, but sooner or later, due to excretion or decomposition, they are
returned to an inorganic state. Often bacteria complete this process, through the
process called decomposition or mineralization.
During decomposition these materials are not destroyed or lost, so the earth is a
closed system with respect to elements (with the exception of a meteorite
entering the system now and then). The elements are cycled endlessly between
their biotic and abiotic states within ecosystems. Those elements whose supply
tends to limit biological activity are called nutrients.
The Transformation of Energy
The transformations of energy in an ecosystem begin first with the input of energy
from the sun. Energy from the sun is captured by the process of photosynthesis.
Carbon dioxide is combined with hydrogen (derived from the splitting of water
molecules) to produce carbohydrates (CHO). Energy is stored in the high energy
bonds of adenosine triphosphate, or ATP.
The prophet Isaah said "all flesh is grass", earning him the title of first ecologist,
because virtually all energy available to organisms originates in plants. Because it
is the first step in the production of energy for living things, it is called primary
production. Herbivores obtain their energy by consuming plants or plant products,
carnivores eat herbivores, and detritivores consume the droppings and carcasses
of us all.

Illustration 2: Enegry Flow in Ecosystem

Illustration 2 portrays a simple food chain, in which energy from the sun, captured
by plant photosynthesis, flows from trophic level to trophic level via the food
chain. A trophic level is composed of organisms that make a living in the same
way, that is they are all primary producers (plants), primary consumers
(herbivores) or secondary consumers (carnivores). Dead tissue and waste
products are produced at all levels. Scavengers, detritivores, and decomposers
collectively account for the use of all such "waste" -- consumers of carcasses and
fallen leaves may be other animals, such as crows and beetles, but ultimately it is
the microbes that finish the job of decomposition.
For reasons, energy transfer through the food chain is inefficient. This means that
less energy is available at the herbivore level than at the primary producer level,
less yet at the carnivore level, and so on. The result is a pyramid of energy, with
important implications for understanding the quantity of life that can be
supported.
Example of a Simple Ecosystem
In ecology, a unit consisting of living organisms and the environment that they
live in. A simple example of an ecosystem is a pond. The pond ecosystem includes
all the pond plants and animals and also the water and other substances that
make up the pond itself. Individual organisms interact with each other and with
their environment in a variety of relationships, such as two organisms in
competition, predator and prey, or as a food source for other organisms in a food
chain. These relationships are usually complex and finely balanced, and in natural
ecosystems should be self-sustaining. However, major changes to an ecosystem,
such as climate change, overpopulation, or the removal of a species, may
threaten the system's sustainability and result in its eventual destruction. For
instance, the removal of a major carnivore predator can result in the destruction
of an ecosystem through overgrazing by herbivores. Ecosystems can be large,
such as the global ecosystem (the ecosphere), or small, such as the pools that
collect water in the branch of a tree, and they can contain smaller systems.

Illustration 3: Simple Ecosystem

Illustration 3 shows the complex interrelationships between animals and plants in

a food web. A food web shows how different food chains are linked in an
ecosystem. Note that the arrows indicate movement of energy through the web.
For example, an arrow shows that energy moves from plants to the grasshopper,
which eats the plants.
Summary
In summation we may conclude that:
• Ecosystems are made up of abiotic (non-living, environmental) and biotic
components, and these basic components are important to nearly all types
of ecosystems. Ecosystem Ecology looks at energy transformations and
biogeochemical cycling within ecosystems.
• Energy is continually input into an ecosystem in the form of light energy,
and some energy is lost with each transfer to a higher trophic level.
Nutrients, on the other hand, are recycled within an ecosystem, and their
supply normally limits biological activity. So, "energy flows, elements
cycle".
• Energy is moved through an ecosystem via a food web, which is made up of
interlocking food chains. Energy is first captured by photosynthesis (primary
production). The amount of primary production determines the amount of
energy available to higher trophic levels.
• The study of how chemical elements cycle through an ecosystem is termed
biogeochemistry. A biogeochemical cycle can be expressed as a set of
stores (pools) and transfers, and can be studied using the concepts of
"stoichiometry", "mass balance", and "residence time".
• Ecosystem function is controlled mainly by two processes, "top-down" and
"bottom-up" controls.
• A biome is a major vegetation type extending over a large area. Biome
distributions are determined largely by temperature and precipitation
patterns on the Earth's surface.