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Introduction
An ecosystem can be visualized as a functional unit of nature, where living
organisms interact among themselves and also with the surrounding physical
environment.
Ecosystem is the interaction of living things among themselves and with their
surrounding environment.
There are two basic ecosystems
Terrestrial
Forest, grassland and desert ecosystem
Aquatic
Pond, lake, wetland, river and estuary ecosystem
Man-made ecosystem: Crop fields and aquarium
Productivity
Primary production: The amount of biomass or organic matter produced per
unit area over a time period by plants during photosynthesis.
Unit: weight (g – 2 ) or energy (kcal m – 2 ).
Productivity: The rate of biomass production.
Unit: g –2 yr –1 or (kcal m – 2 ) yr –1
Gross primary productivity (GPP): The rate of production of organic matter
during photosynthesis.
Net primary productivity (NPP): Gross primary productivity minus respiration
losses (R).
GPP – R = NPPN
Net primary productivity is the available biomass for the consumption to
heterotrophs (herbivore and decomposers.
Secondary productivity: The rate of formation of new organic matter by
consumers.
The annual net primary productivity of the whole biosphere is approximately 170
billion tons (dry weight) of organic matter. Of this, despite occupying about 70
per cent of the surface, the productivity of the oceans are only 55 billion tons.
Primary productivity depends upon-
type of plant species inhabiting a particular area
photosynthetic capacity of plants
nutrient availability
Environmental factors
Decomposition
Earthworm is said to be ‘friends’ of farmer:
o Breakdown the complex organic matter.
o Loosening of the soil helps in aeration and entry of root.
The decomposers break down complex organic matter into inorganic
substances like carbon dioxide, water and nutrients, called decomposition.
Dead plant remains such as leaves, bark, flowers and dead remains of
animals, including fecal matter, constitute the detritus.
The process of decomposition completed in following steps:
o Fragmentation : Break down of detritus into smaller particles by
detritivore (earthworm).
o Leaching: Water soluble inorganic nutrients go down into the soil
horizon and get precipitated as unavailable salts.
o Catabolism : Bacterial and fungal enzymes degrade detritus into simple
inorganic substances.
o Humification: Accumulation of dark coloured amorphous substances
called humus.
Importance of humus:
o Highly resistance to microbial action.
o Undergo decomposition at an extremely slow rate.
o Being colloidal in nature, it serves as reservoir for nutrients.
o Mineralization: The humus is further degraded by some microbes and
release of inorganic nutrients occur.
Energy Flow
Except for the deep sea hydro-thermal ecosystem, sun is the only source of
energy for all ecosystems on Earth.
Photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) : Of the incident solar radiation
less than 50 % of solar radiation; that can be used by autotrophs to make food
from simple inorganic materials.
Plants capture only 2-10 per cent of the PAR.
Energy flow in the ecosystem is unidirectional i.e. energy transferred from
producer to consumers.(first law of thermodynamics).
They follow the Second Law of thermodynamics. They need a constant supply
of energy to synthesize the molecules they require, to counteract the universal
tendency toward increasing disorderliness.
Producers: The green plant in the ecosystem that produces the food.
In terrestrial ecosystem: herbaceous and woody plants
In aquatic ecosystem: various species like phytoplankton, algae and higher
plants.
Consumers: All animals depend on plants (directly or indirectly) for their food
needs.
Food Chain:
Grazing food chain (GFC): A food chain that begins with producers.
Detritus food chain (DFC): A food chain that starts with dead organic
matter(detritus)
It is made up of decomposers which are heterotrophic organisms, mainly
fungi and bacteria.
They meet their energy and nutrient requirements by degrading dead
organic matter or detritus.
Secrete digestive enzymes that breakdown dead and waste materials into
simple, inorganic materials, which are subsequently absorbed by them.
(saprophytes)
In aquatic ecosystem GFC is the major conduit for energy flow.
In terrestrial ecosystems a much larger fraction of energy flows through the
detritus food chain than through GFC
Different food chains are naturally interconnected e.g. a specific herbivore of
one food chain may serve as food of carnivores of other food chains. Such
interconnected matrix of food chains is called food web.
Trophic level: Based on the source of their nutrition or food, organisms occupy
a specific place in the food chain that is known as their trophic level.
Producers – first trophic level
Herbivores (primary consumer) – second trophic level
Carnivores (secondary consumer) – third trophic level
Standing crop: The mass of living material (biomass) that is present in a
trophic level at a particular time.
The standing crop is measured as the mass of living organisms (biomass) or
the number in a unit area. Measurement of biomass in terms of dry weight is
more accurate.
10% law: Only 10 per cent of the energy is transferred to each trophic level
from the lower trophic level; as a result of which the number of trophic levels in
the grazing food chain is restricted.
Ecological pyramids:
An ecological pyramid is a graphical representation representing relationship
between different trophic levels of food chain in terms of number, biomass or
energy.
The base of each pyramid represents the producers or the first trophic level
while the apex represents tertiary or top level consumer.
Pyramid of numbers in a grassland ecosystem:
Only three top-carnivores are supported in an ecosystem based on production
of nearly 6 millions plants.
Pyramid of biomass:
Sharp decrease in biomass at higher trophic levels.
Ecological Succession
The gradual and fairly predictable change in the species composition of a given
area is called ecological succession.
The composition and structure of a community constantly change in response
to the changing environmental conditions.
This change is orderly and sequential, parallel with the changes in the physical
environment.
All the changes lead finally to a community that is in near equilibrium with the
environment and that is called climax community.
During succession some species colonize and area and their populations
become more numerous, whereas populations of other species decline and
even disappear.
The entire sequences of communities that successively change in a given area
are called sere.
The individual transitional communities are termed as seral stages or seral
communities.
In the successive seral stages there is a change in the diversity of species of
organisms, increase in number of species and total biomass.
Primary succession: The succession that happens in areas where no life
forms ever existed as in bare rocks, cool lava, newly created pond or reservoir
etc.
It takes hundreds to thousands of years as developing soil on bare rocks is
a slow process.
SECONDARY SUCCESSION:
The pioneer species depends on the following factors:
Condition of the soil
Availability of water
The environment
The seeds or other propagules present
As the soil is present at the beginning the climax community is reached much
quickly.
Nutrient Cycling
Organism needs constant supply of nutrients to grow, reproduce, and regulate
various body functions.
Standing state: the amount nutrients such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus,
calcium etc. present in soil at any given time is called standing state.
Nutrient cycling: The movement of nutrient elements through the various
component of an ecosystem is called nutrient cycling.
Another name of nutrient cycling is biogeochemical cycle.
Nutrient cycles are of two types:
Gaseous cycle: The reservoir for gaseous type of nutrient cycle
(nitrogen, carbon) exists in the atmosphere.
Sedimentary cycle: The reservoir for sedimentary cycle (sulphur,
phosphorus) is Earth’s crust.
Environmental factors like soil, moisture, pH temperature regulate the rate of
release of nutrient into the atmosphere.
The function of the reservoir is to meet the deficit which occurs due to
imbalance in the rate of influx and efflux.
Ecosystem-Carbon Cycle
Carbon constitutes 49 percent of dry weight of organism.
Out of total global carbon:
o 71 percent carbon found dissolved in ocean. This oceanic reservoir
regulates the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
o About 1 percent in the atmosphere.
Fossil fuel also represent a reservoir of carbon. Carbon cycling occurs
through atmosphere, ocean and through living and dead organisms.
4 X 1013 kg of carbon is fixed in the biosphere by photosynthesis, annually.
Large amount of carbon returned to the atmosphere as CO2 through
respiration of producers and consumers.
Decomposers also return CO2 to reservoir during decomposition process.
Some amount of Carbon is lost to sediments and removed from circulation.
Burning wood, forest fire, combustion of organic matter, fossil fuel, volcanic
activities are additional source for releasing CO2 to atmosphere.