Ecosystem
Ecosystem
Ecosystem
Ecosystems: What
Are They and How
Do They Work?
What Keeps Us and Other
Organisms Alive?
• Concept 3-1A The four major components of the
earth’s life-support system are the atmosphere (air),
the hydrosphere (water), the geosphere (rock, soil,
and sediment), and the biosphere (living things).
Fig. 3-2, p. 56
Atmosphere
• The atmosphere is a thin spherical envelope of gases
surrounding the earth’s surface.
• Its inner layer, the troposphere, contains the air we breathe,
consisting mostly of nitrogen (78% of the total volume) and
oxygen (21%). Most of the remaining 1% of the air consists of
water vapor, carbon dioxide, and methane.
• The next layer, reaching from 17 to 50 kilometers (11–31 miles)
above the earth’s surface, is called the stratosphere. Its lower
portion holds enough ozone (O3) gas to filter out about 95% of
the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) radiation. This global
sunscreen allows life to exist on the surface of the planet.
Hydrosphere
• The hydrosphere is made up of all of the water on
or near the earth’s surface.
• It is found as water vapor in the atmosphere, as
liquid water on the surface and underground, and
as ice—polar ice, icebergs, glaciers, and ice in
frozen soil-layers called permafrost.
• The oceans, which cover about 71% of the globe,
contain about 97% of the earth’s water and support
about half of the world’s species.
Geosphere
• The geosphere consists of the earth’s intensely hot
core, a thick mantle composed mostly of rock, and
a thin outer crust.
• The crust’s upper portion contains soil chemicals
that organisms need in order to live, grow, and
reproduce (nutrients), as well as nonrenewable
fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—and minerals
that we use.
Biosphere
• The biosphere consists of the parts of the
atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere
where life is found.
• An important goal of environmental science is
to understand the key interactions that occur
within this thin layer of air, water, soil, and
organisms and how we interact with the
biosphere.
Atmosphere
Biosphere
(living organisms)
Soil
Rock
Crust
Mantle
Geosphere
Mantle (crust, mantle, core)
Hydrosphere (water)
Fig. 3-2, p. 56
The Diversity of Life
Fig. 3-3a, p. 56
Three Factors Sustain Life on
Earth
• One-way flow of high-quality energy:
• Sun → plants → living things → environment as
heat → radiation to space
• Cycling of nutrients through parts of the
biosphere
• Because the earth does not get significant inputs
of matter from space, its essentially fixed supply
of nutrients must be continually recycled to
support life, in keeping with the chemical cycling
• Gravity holds earths atmosphere
• allows the planet to hold onto its atmosphere and helps to
enable the movement and cycling of chemicals through
air, water, soil, and organisms.
Flow of Energy to and from the Earth
Fig. 3-4, p. 57
What Are the Major Components of
an Ecosystem?
• Concept 3-2 Some organisms produce the nutrients
they need, others get their nutrients by consuming
other organisms, and some recycle nutrients back to
producers by decomposing the wastes and remains
of organisms.
Ecologists Study Interactions in
Nature
• Ecology: is the science that focuses on how
organisms interact with one another and with
their nonliving environment of matter and
energy.
• Ecologists study interactions within and
among five of these levels—organisms,
populations, communities, ecosystems, and
the biosphere.
Biosphere Parts of the earth's air,water, and soil
where life is found
Fig. 3-6, p. 59
Oxygen (O2)
Precipitaton
Producer
Secondary
consumer (fox)
Primary consumer
(rabbit)
Producers
Water Decomposers
Fig. 3-7a, p. 59
Consumers
Fig. 3-8a, p. 60
Producers and Consumers Are the Living
Components of Ecosystems
• Decomposers
• Consumers that release nutrients
• Bacteria
• Fungi
• Detritivores
• Feed on dead bodies of other organisms
• Earthworms
• Vultures
Decomposer
Fig. 3-9a, p. 61
Detritivores and Decomposers
Fig. 3-10, p. 61
Detritus feeders Decomposers
Carpenter Termite
Bark beetle ant galleries and
Long-horned engraving carpenter
Dry rot
beetle holes ant work
fungus
Wood reduced
to powder Fungi
Fig. 3-11, p. 62
Solar
Chemical nutrients energy
Heat (carbon dioxide,
oxygen, nitrogen,
minerals)
Heat Heat
Consumers (plant
eaters, meat eaters)
Heat Heat
Fig. 3-11, p. 62
Science Focus: Many of the World’s Most
Important Species Are Invisible to Us
Microorganisms
• Bacteria
• Protozoa
• Fungi
3-3 What Happens to Energy in
an Ecosystem?
• Concept 3-3 As energy flows through ecosystems in
food chains and webs, the amount of chemical
energy available to organisms at each succeeding
feeding level decreases.
Energy Flows Through Ecosystems
in Food Chains and Food Webs
• Food chain
• Movement of energy and nutrients from
one trophic level to the next
• Photosynthesis → feeding →
decomposition
• Food web
• Network of interconnected food chains
A Food Chain
Fig. 3-12, p. 63
First Trophic Second Third Trophic Fourth Trophic
Level Trophic Level Level
Level
Solar
energy
Heat
Heat Heat
Decomposers and
detritus feeders
Fig. 3-12, p. 63
A Food Web
Fig. 3-13, p. 64
Fig. 3-13, p. 64
Usable Energy Decreases with
Each Link in a Food Chain or Web
• Biomass
• Dry weight of all organic matter of a given trophic
level in a food chain or food web
• Decreases at each higher trophic level due to heat
loss
Fig. 3-14, p. 65
Usable energy available at
each trophic level Heat
(in kilocalories)
Tertiary consumers
(human) 10
Heat
Secondary
consumers (perch) 100
Heat Heat
Decomposers
Primary consumers
(zooplankton) 1,000
Heat
10,000
Producers
(phytoplankton)
Fig. 3-14, p. 65
Usable energy available
at each trophic level Heat
(in kilocalories)
Tertiary
consumers 10
(human) Heat
Secondary
consumers 100
(perch) Heat Decomposers Heat
Primary
consumers 1,000
(zooplankton) Heat
10,000
Producers
(phytoplankton)
Stepped Art
Fig. 3-14, p. 65
Some Ecosystems Produce Plant
Matter Faster Than Others Do
• Gross primary productivity (GPP)
• Rate at which an ecosystem’s producers convert solar
energy to chemical energy and biomass
• Kcal/m2/year
• Net primary productivity (NPP)
• Rate at which an ecosystem’s producers convert solar
energy to chemical energy, minus the rate at which
producers use energy for aerobic respiration
• Ecosystems and life zones differ in their NPP
Estimated Annual Average NPP in Major Life Zones
and Ecosystems
Fig. 3-15, p. 66
Terrestrial Ecosystems
Swamps and marshes
Tropical rain forest
Temperate forest
Northern coniferous forest (taiga)
Savanna
Agricultural land
Woodland and shrubland
Temperate grassland
Tundra (arctic and alpine)
Desert scrub
Extreme desert
Aquatic Ecosystems
Estuaries
Lakes and streams
Continental shelf
Open ocean
Fig. 3-15, p. 66
What Happens to Matter in
an Ecosystem?
• Concept 3-4 Matter, in the form of
nutrients, cycles within and among
ecosystems and the biosphere, and
human activities are altering these
chemical cycles.
Nutrients Cycle in the Biosphere
Transpiration
from plants
Precipitatio
n to land Evaporation of
surface water Evaporation
from ocean
Runoff
Lakes and
reservoirs Precipitatio
n to ocean
Runoff
Increased runoff on land
covered with crops,
Infiltration and buildings and pavement
percolation into Increased runoff
aquifer from cutting
Runoff forests and filling
wetlands
Groundwater Overpumping
in aquifers of aquifers Water pollution
Runoff
Ocean
Natural process
Natural reservoir
Human impacts
Natural pathway
Pathway affected by human activities Fig. 3-16, p. 67
Water Cycles through the
Biosphere
Fig. 3-16, p. 67
Condensation Condensation
Ice and
snow
Transpiration
from plants
Precipitatio
n to land Evaporation of
surface water Evaporation
from ocean
Runoff
Lakes and
reservoirs Precipitatio
n to ocean
Runoff
Increased runoff on land
covered with crops,
Infiltration and buildings and pavement
percolation into Increased runoff
aquifer from cutting
Runoff forests and filling
wetlands
Groundwater Overpumping
in aquifers of aquifers Water pollution
Runoff
Ocean
Natural process
Natural reservoir
Human impacts
Natural pathway
Pathway affected by human activities Fig. 3-16, p. 67
Glaciers Store Water
Fig. 3-17, p. 68
Water Erodes Rock in Antelope Canyon
Fig. 3-18, p. 69
Carbon Cycle Depends on
Photosynthesis and Respiration
• Link between photosynthesis in producers and
respiration in producers, consumers, and
decomposers
• Carbon is the basic building block of the
carbohydrates, fats, proteins, DNA, and other
organic compounds necessary for life.
• Carbon dioxide affects the temperature of the
earth’s atmosphere through the greenhouse
effect and thus plays a major role in
determining the earth’s climate.
Carbon Cycle Depends on
Photosynthesis and Respiration
• Carbon is cycled through the biosphere by a
combination of photosynthesis by producers,
which remove CO2 from the air and water,
and aerobic respiration by producers,
consumers, and decomposers, which adds CO2
in the atmosphere.
Carbon Cycle Depends on
Photosynthesis and Respiration
• In only a few hundred years, we have
extracted and burned huge quantities of fossil
fuels that took millions of years to form and
added large quantities of CO2 to the
atmosphere, thus altering the carbon cycle.
• Another way in which we alter the cycle is by
clearing carbon-absorbing vegetation from
many forests, especially tropical forests, faster
than it can grow back.
Natural Capital: Carbon Cycle with Major Harmful
Impacts of Human Activities
Fig. 3-19, p. 70
Carbon dioxide in
atmosphere Respiration
Photosynthesis
Animals
(consumers) Burning
fossil fuels
Diffusion Forest fires
Plants
Deforestation (producers)
Transportation Respiration
Carbon in
plants
(producers)
Carbon dioxide Carbon in
animals
dissolved in ocean (consumers)
Decomposition
Carbon in
Marine food webs
Producers, consumers, fossil fuels
decomposers
Carbon in limestone
or dolomite Compaction
sediments
Process
Reservoir
Pathway affected by humans
Natural pathway
Fig. 3-19, p. 70
Increase in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide, 1960-2009
Supplement 9, Fig 14
Nitrogen Cycles through the
Biosphere: Bacteria in Action (1)
• Nitrogen fixed by lightning
• Nitrogen fixed by bacteria and cyanobacteria
• Combine gaseous nitrogen with hydrogen to make
ammonia (NH3) and ammonium ions (NH4+)
• Nitrification
• Soil bacteria change ammonia and ammonium ions to
nitrate ions (NO3-)
• Denitrification
• Nitrate ions back to nitrogen gas
Nitrogen Cycles through the
Biosphere: Bacteria in Action (2)
• Human intervention in the nitrogen cycle
1. Additional NO and N2O in atmosphere
from burning fossil fuels; also causes acid
rain
2. Add excess nitrates to bodies of water.
This can cause excessive growth of algae
that can disrupt aquatic systems.
Nitrogen Cycle in a Terrestrial Ecosystem with Major
Harmful Human Impacts
Fig. 3-20, p. 71
Process Denitrification by bacteria
Nitrogen in
Reservoir atmosphere Nitrification by
Pathway affected by humans bacteria
Natural pathway
Nitrogen in
Electrical storms animals
Nitrogen oxides (consumers)
from burning fuel Volcanic
and using activity
inorganic
fertilizers
Nitrogen
in plants
(producers)
Decomposition
Nitrates from
fertilizer
runoff and Uptake by plants
decomposition
Nitrate in soil
Fig. 3-20, p. 71
Human Input of Nitrogen into the Environment
Supplement 9, Fig 16
Phosphorus Cycles through the
Biosphere
• Cycles through water, the earth’s crust, and
living organisms
• Limiting factor for plant growth
Fig. 3-21, p. 73
Process
Reservoir
Pathway affected by humans
Natural pathway
Phosphates Phosphates
in sewage in fertilizer Plate
Phosphates in tectonics
mining waste Runoff Runoff
Sea
birds
Runoff
Phosphate in
rock (fossil
Erosion bones,
guano) Ocean food
webs
Animals
(consumers) Phosphate Phosphate in
dissolved shallow ocean
in water sediments
Phosphate
in deep
Plants ocean
(producers) sediments
Bacteria
Fig. 3-21, p. 73
Sulfur Cycles through the
Biosphere
• Sulfur is found in organisms, ocean sediments, soil,
rocks, and fossil fuels
Fig. 3-22, p. 74
Sulfur dioxide
in atmosphere
Sulfuric acid
Burning Refining and Sulfate
Smelting deposited
coal fossil fuels
Sulfur in
as acid rain
Dimethyl
animals
sulfide a (consumers)
bacteria
byproduct
Sulfur in
plants
Mining and (producers)
extraction Uptake
Sulfur by plants
in ocean Decay
sediments
Decay
Process Sulfur
Reservoir in soil, rock
Pathway affected by and fossil fuels
humans
Natural pathway Fig. 3-22, p. 74
Three Big Ideas