Topic: The Biosphere

 Life and Energy

 Photosynthesis and Respiration
 Biochemical Pathways
 Autotrophs and Heterotrophs
 Energy and Matter Flow in Ecosystems
 Ecosystem Productivity
 Gore's "Inconvenient
Drudge Report: Truth" wins documentar
Al Gore's 'Inconvenient Oscar
Truth'?
A $30,000 Utility bill
According to the Tennessee Center
for Policy Research

The average household in America

consumes
10,656 kilowatt-hours (kWh) per
year
Gore uses nearly 221,000 kWh per year
In August alone, Gore used 22,619 kWh

"If this were any other person with $30,000-a-year in utility bills,
I wouldn't care," says the Center's 27-year-old president, Drew
Johnson. "But he tells other people how to live and he's not
following his own rules."
 Gore Response
Scoffed a former Gore adviser in response: "I think what
you're seeing here is the last gasp of the global warming
skeptics. They've completely lost the debate on the issue so
now they're just attacking their most effective opponent."

 1) Gore’s family has taken numerous steps to reduce the

carbon footprint of their private residence, including signing
up for 100 percent green power through Green Power
Switch, installing solar panels, and using compact
fluorescent bulbs and other energy saving technology.
 2) Gore has had a consistent position of purchasing carbon
offsets to offset the family’s carbon footprint — a concept
the right-wing fails to understand. Gore’s office explains:

 What Mr. Gore has asked is that every family calculate

their carbon footprint and try to reduce it as much as
possible. Once they have done so, he then advocates
that they purchase offsets, as the Gore’s do, to bring
their footprint down to zero
 Life and Energy

All organisms require energy for work

Work for a cell includes:

growth & repair,
active transport across cell membranes,
reproduction,
synthesis of cellular products, etc.

Some organisms (autotrophs) obtain energy directly from the

sun and store it in organic compounds (glucose) during a
process called photosynthesis
 Photosynthesis and Respiration
 In photosynthesis, CO2(carbon dioxide) and H2O (water)
are combined to form C6H12O6(glucose) & O2(oxygen)
CO2+ 6H2O + radiant energy -->  6O2+ C6H12O6 +6H20

Absorption spectra of key 
photosynthetic pigments

 In cellular respiration, O2(oxygen) is used to burn

C6H12O6(glucose) & release CO2 (carbon dioxide), H2O
(water), and energy
C6H12O6+ 6O2+6H2O --> 6CO2+12H2O + ATP energy
Notice that woody 
tissues in plants 
constitute a storage 
of the products of 
photosynthesis 
(carbon!)
 Biochemical Pathways
Photosynthesis and cellular respiration are biochemical pathways

Biochemical pathways are a series of reactions where the product

of one reaction is the reactant of the next

Only autotrophs are capable of photosynthesis

Both autotrophs & heterotrophs perform cellular respiration to

release energy to do work

Usable energy released in cellular respiration is called adenosine

triphosphate or ATP
 Autotrophs and Heterotrophs
•Autotrophs (or producers) convert sunlight, CO2 and H2O into
glucose (their food)
•Plants, algae, and blue-green bacteria, some prokaryotes are
producers or autotrophs
•Only 10% of the Earth’s 40 million species are autotrophs
•Other autotrophs use inorganic compounds instead
of sunlight to make food; process is known as chemosynthesis

•Producers make food for themselves and heterotrophs, or

consumers, that cannot make food for themselves
•Heterotrophs include animals, fungi, & some bacteria, &
protists
Typical plant parts 
showing their 
exchanges with 
their surroundings 
and movements 
between parts
 2nd law of thermodynamics

Some usable energy is lost during transformations.

Or - during changes from one form of energy to another,

some usable energy is lost, usually as heat

The amount of usable energy therefore decreases as

transformation take place (the concept of entropy) - life by its
nature is “antientropy”

Important, as it means that some energy is lost during

respiration, i.e., not all the chemical energy stored in glucose
can be converted to work
 Energy and Matter Flow in Ecosystems

How does energy flow through an ecosystem?

An ecosystem is defined by the interaction of a group of

organisms with their environment

Plants are primary producers and support all other organisms

(consumers)
 The Food Web
 flow of food energy between different organisms
within an ecosystem as a series of steps or levels
 Plants are primary producers (use sunlight, water and
CO2 to create carbohydrates)
 Herbivores (plant eaters) are primary consumers
 Carnivores (meat eaters) are secondary consumers
 Decomposers (microorganisms and bacteria)
consume detritus at all levels
The Food Web – Salt Water Marshes

(From Strahler and Strahler)
 The Food Web – Energy Loss
as energy is passed from level to level, some energy is lost due to
respiration (and 2nd law of thermodynamics)
since only 10 to 50% moves from one level to the next there is a big
drop in biomass as you move up the food web

(From Strahler and Strahler)
Another view (from the book)
 Ecosystem Productivity
Gross Photosynthesis, or Gross Primary Production (GPP) is the
total amount of carbohydrate produced

Net Photosynthesis, or Net Primary Production (NPP) is the

amount of carbohydrate remaining after respiration (by autotrophs)

Net Ecosystem Production (NEP) is NPP minus respiration by

heterotrophs

Net Biome Production (NBP) is NEP minus carbon released by

other ecosystem processes like fire or pests (represents the overall
effects for the entire biome)
 Factors that influence the rate of
photosynthesis

 Temperature
 Light intensity
 Availability of nutrients and water
 Obviously the amount
of light received by a
plant will affect the
light reactions of
photosynthesis
 Light Compensation
Point
 As light declines, it
eventually reaches a
point where respiration
is equal to
photosynthesis
 Light Saturation Point
 As light increases, it
reaches a point where
all chloroplasts are
working at a maximum
rate
 Photoinhibition
 In some circumstances,
excess light can result
in “overloading” and
even damage to
 Temperature is
important to plants
 Photosynthesis
increases as the
temperature increases
 Respiration increases as
the temperature
increases
 Damage to enzymes etc
increases with
temperature
 Water loss increases
with temperature
 Evaporation of water
helps to keep the
temperature lower
 Thus relative humidity
and available water is
important
 Uptake of a
nutrient through
the roots depends
on its
concentration
 However there is a
maximum
 Some nutrients can
be inhibitory
 Effect of nutrient
availability can
also reach a
So how does ecosystem productivity
(GPP and NPP) vary as a function of
time and space?
 Factors of light, water,
temperature and nutrients!
 Net Production and Precipitation
Net production increases rapidly with increasing
precipitation, but levels off at higher values

From Strahler and Strahler
Life is primarily limited to the
surface and a shallow layer in the
oceans
Remote Sensing provides a 
way to study ecosystem 
productivity in space and 
time!  The images to the right 
are a vegetation index from 
MODIS and illustrate the 
dramatic variability in 
vegetation amount between 
areas and seasons
Colors:
  white ­> brown ­> green
   low                        high
Notice the strong relationship between the amount
of vegetation present and GPP
 MODIS
Global Net Primary Productivity
2002

Remember
•light
•water
•temperature
•nutrients
0 1 2 3
Net Primary Productivity, kg C/m2/yr
(MODIS Science Team.)