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Textbook:
Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology
by F. Stuart Chapin III
Pamela A. Matson
Harold A. Mooney
Course Goals
Understand basic principles
Interaction, scale, process, pools and
fluxes, trophic,
Integration
regulation and
Get you involved
management
Participate!!!
What is an ecosystem?
bounded ecological system
consisting of all the organisms in an
area and the physical environment
with which they interact
Biotic and abiotic processes
Pools and fluxes
System defnition
Living
aboveground
phytomass
Standing
dead
System output:
Degistati
on
Animals
System input:
- wet and dry
deposition
- N2-fxation
- fertilization
- water inflow
nutrient cycling
Litter
Exc
reta
Uptake for
shoot production
internal
nutrient cycling
(Du
ng)
Retranslocation
Decompo
sition
Excreta (Urine)
Living
belowground
phytomass
Dead
belowground
phytomass
Decomp
osition
Humifcation
Humus
Immobilization
Washout
Exudation
Mineralization
Uptake
Mineral
nutrients in
soil solution
Mineralization
- water outflow
- wind erosion
- losses to air
(denitrifcation)
- fre (burning dung)
- haymaking
- animal products
(meat, wool,...)
TO
1.4 - 2.3
T79
2.2 - 3.1
N-uptake
TO
1.4 - 2.3
T79
2.2 - 3.1
Living roots
roots
Living
TO
4.5
T79
8.3
TO
Sheep uptake 1,0
TO
0.1
TO
0.23 - 0.26
T79
25.4
Export
TO
0.6
Standing dead
dead and
and
Standing
litter
litter
Decomposition
TO
T79
0.05
0.6
T79
2.8 - 2.9
Root N-uptake
TO
5
T79
7
Soil Humus N
(0-20 cm)
Plant
available
N
Dead roots
roots
Dead
TO
16.7
Sheep
TO
0.4
Decomposition
TO
3-5
T79
5-9
TO
330
T79
400
Ecosystem Structure:
Trophic relations
Trophic relationships determine an
ecosystems routes of energy flow and
chemical cycling
Trophic structure refers to the feeding
relations among organisms in an ecosystem
Trophic level refers to how organisms fit in
based on their main source of nutrition,
including
Trophic levels
Primary producers: autotrophs (plants, algae,
many bacteria, phytoplankton),
Primary consumers: heterotrophs that feed on
autotrophs (herbivores, zooplankton);
Secondary consumers heterotrophs that feed on
primary consumers;
Tertiary consumers (quatenary consumers);
Detritivores (organisms that feed on decaying
organic matter, bacteria, fungi, and soil fauna)
Omnivores (feed on everything), frugivore,
fungivore.
Other Definitions
An ecosystem is a bounded ecological
system that includes all the organisms and
abiotic pools with which they interact.
An ecosystems is the sum of all of the
biological and nonbiological parts that
interact to cause plants grow and decay, soil
or sediments to form, and the chemistry of
water to change.
Ecosystem Ecology
The study of the movement of energy and
materials, including water, chemicals,
nutrients, and pollutants, into, out of, and
within ecosystems.
The study of the interactions among
organisms and their environment as an
integrated systems.
Example 1
Small scale: e.g., soil core, appropriate for
studying microbial interactions with the soil
environment, microbial nutrient
transformations, trace gas fluxes,
Example 2
Stand: an area of sufficient homogeneity
with regard to vegetation, soils, topography,
microclimate, and past disturbance history
to be treated as a single unit.
Appropriate for studying whole-ecosystem gas
exchange, net primary productivity, plantsoil-microbial nutrient and carbon fluxes
Example 3
Natural boundaries: sometimes, ecosystems
are bounded by naturally-delineated borders
(lawn, crop field, lake).
Appropriate questions include whole-lake
trophic dynamics and energy fluxes (e.g.
Lindeman)
Example 4
Watershed: a stream and all the terrestrial
surface that drains into it.
Watershed studies use stream as sample
device, recording surface exports of water,
nutrients, carbon, pollutants, etc., from the
watershed.
Temporal Scale
Instantaneous
Temporal Scale
Instantaneous
Seasonal
Temporal Scale
Instantaneous
Seasonal
Succession
Temporal Scale
Instantaneous
Seasonal
Succession
Species migration
Temporal Scale
Instantaneous
Seasonal
Succession
Species migration
Evolutionary history
Temporal Scale
Instantaneous
Seasonal
Succession
Species migration
Evolutionary history
Geologic history
General approaches
Systems approach
Top-down approach
General approaches
Systems approach
Top-down approach
Comparative approach
Bottom-up approach
Based on processes
Historical roots
Community ecology
Elton
Clements
Geography
Warming, Schimper, Walter
Soils
Jenny
Systems Approach
Process Approach
Jenny: State factors
Billings, Mooney: Ecophysiology
Ramond Lindeman
Qualified pools and fluxes of energy in a lake
ecosystem emphasizing biotic and abiotic
components and exchange
Fluxes of energy, critical currency in ecosystem
ecology, basis for comparison among ecosystems
Synthesized with mathematical model
Coupling of energy flow with nutrient cycling
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