Ecosystems

Ecosystems, Energy, and

Matter
• An ecosystem consists of all the organisms living in a
community as well as all the abiotic factors with which
they interact
• Regardless of an ecosystem’s size it involves two main
processes: energy flow and chemical cycling

©TimErnst
 Trophic Relationships
• Energy and nutrients pass
– From primary producers (autotrophs) to
primary consumers (herbivores) and then to
secondary consumers (carnivores)
– Energy is not reused, but eventually lost as
heat. Thus energy flows, but does not cycle.

40.1/40.3
• Energy flows through an ecosystem
– Entering as light and exiting as heat
Tertiary
consumers

Microorganisms
and other
detritivores Secondary
consumers

Detritus Primary consumers

Primary producers

Heat
Key

Chemical cycling Sun

Energy flow
40.1
Detritus – once-living organic matter
 Factors Limiting Primary Production

• Primary production in an ecosystem

– Is the amount of light energy converted to
chemical energy by autotrophs during a given
time period
• The extent of photosynthetic production
– Sets the limit for the energy availability of the
entire ecosystem

40.2
 Global Source of Primary
Production
North Pole

60°N

30°N

Equator

30°S

60°S

South Pole
180° 120°W 60°W 0° 60°E 120°E 180°
• Energy transfer between trophic levels is
usually less than 20% efficient
• The secondary production of an ecosystem
– Is the amount of chemical energy in
consumers’ food that is converted to their own
new biomass during a given period of time

40.4
 Production Efficiency
• When a caterpillar feeds on a plant leaf
– Only about one-sixth of the energy in the leaf
is used for secondary production

Plant material
eaten by caterpillar

200 J

67 J Cellular
Feces 100 J respiration
33 J

40.5 Growth (new biomass)

 Trophic Efficiency and
Ecological Pyramids
• Trophic efficiency
– Is the percentage of production transferred
from one trophic level to the next
– Usually ranges from 5% to 20%

40.5
 Pyramids of Production
• This loss of energy with each transfer in a food
chain
– Can be represented by a pyramid of net production
Tertiary
10 J
consumers

Secondary
100 J
consumers

Primary 1,000 J
consumers

Primary
producers 10,000 J

40.5
1,000,000 J of sunlight
 • Most biomass pyramids
– Show a sharp decrease at successively
higher trophic levels
Dry weight
Trophic level (g/m2)
Tertiary consumers 1.5

Secondary consumers 11

Primary consumers 37
809
Primary producers

(a) Most biomass pyramids show a sharp decrease in biomass at

successively higher trophic levels, as illustrated by data from
a bog at Silver Springs, Florida.

40.5
 Pyramids of Numbers
• A pyramid of numbers
– Represents the number of individual
organisms in each trophic level
Trophic level Number of
individual organisms

Tertiary consumers 3
Secondary consumers 354,904
Primary consumers 708,624
Primary producers 5,842,424

40.5
• Worldwide agriculture could successfully
feed many more people
– If humans all fed more efficiently, eating only
plant material
Trophic level

Secondary
consumers

Primary
consumers

Primary
producers
 Chemical Cycling

• Life on Earth
– Depends on the recycling of essential chemical
elements
• Nutrient circuits that cycle matter through an
ecosystem
– Involve both biotic and abiotic components and
are often called biogeochemical cycles
 A General Model of Chemical
Cycling
• Gaseous forms of carbon, oxygen, sulfur,
and nitrogen
– Occur in the atmosphere and cycle globally
• Less mobile elements, including
phosphorous, potassium, and calcium
– Cycle on a more local level
 • A general model of nutrient cycling
– Includes the main reservoirs of elements
and the processes that transfer elements
between reservoirs Reservoir a Reservoir b
Organic Organic
materials materials
available unavailable
as nutrients as nutrients
Fossilization
Living
Coal, oil,
organisms,
peat
detritus

Respiration,
Assimilation, decomposition, Burning
photosynthesis excretion of fossil fuels

Reservoir c Reservoir d
Inorganic Inorganic
materials materials
available Weathering, unavailable
as nutrients erosion as nutrients

Atmosphere, Minerals
soil, water Formation of in rocks
40.6 sedimentary rock
 Biogeochemical Cycles
THE WATER CYCLE THE CARBON CYCLE

• The water cycle and the carbon cycle

CO2 in atmosphere
Transport
over land Photosynthesis
Solar energy
Cellular
Net movement of respiration
water vapor by wind

Precipitation
Precipitation Evaporation
over land
over ocean from ocean
Burning of
Evapotranspiration fossil fuels
from land and wood
Higher-level
Primary consumers
consumers
Percolation Carbon compounds Detritus
through in water
soil
Runoff and
groundwater
Decomposition

40.7/40.8
 Biogeochemical Cycles
THE NITROGEN CYCLE THE PHOSPHORUS CYCLE

• The nitrogen cycle and the phosphorous

cycle N2 in atmosphere

Rain

Geologic Weathering Plants

uplift of rocks
Assimilation Runoff
Denitrifying
Consumption
NO3− bacteria
Nitrogen-fixing Sedimentation
Plant uptake
bacteria in root Decomposers of PO43−
nodules of legumes Nitrifying Soil
Nitrification bacteria
Ammonification Leaching
NH3 NH4+ NO2 −
Nitrogen-fixing Nitrifying
soil bacteria bacteria Decomposition

40.9
 Acid Precipitation
• Combustion of fossil fuels
– Is the main cause of acid precipitation
– Creates sulfuric and nitric acid from sulfur
dioxide and nitrogen oxides

40.10
 • North American and European ecosystems
downwind from industrial regions
– Have been damaged by rain and snow
containing nitric and sulfuric acid

4.6

4.3 4.6
4.3
4.6
4.1
4.3
4.6
Europe

Increasing pH in
Industrialized Areas
North America
40.10
Normal rain pH is ~ 5.6
 • By the year 2000
– The entire contiguous United States was affected
by acid precipitation

Field pH
≥5.3
5.2–5.3
5.1–5.2
5.0–5.1
4.9–5.0
4.8–4.9
4.7–4.8
4.6–4.7
4.5–4.6
4.4–4.5
4.3–4.4
<4.3
40.10
 Toxins in the Environment
• Humans release an immense variety of
toxic chemicals
– Including thousands of synthetics previously
unknown to nature
• One of the reasons such toxins are so
harmful
– Is that they become more concentrated in
successive trophic levels of a food web
• In biological magnification
– Toxins concentrate at higher trophic levels
because at these levels biomass tends to be
lower
Herring
gull eggs
124 ppm
Concentration of PCBs

Lake trout
4.83 ppm

Smelt
1.04 ppm

Zooplankton Phytoplankton
0.123 ppm 0.025 ppm
 Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide
• One pressing problem caused by human
activities
– Is the rising level of atmospheric carbon
dioxide

40.11
 Rising Atmospheric CO2
– Due to the increased burning of fossil fuels and
other human activities the concentration of
atmospheric CO2 has been steadily increasing
1.05
390

380 0.90

0.75

Temperature variation (°C)

370
CO2 concentration (ppm)

Temperature
0.60
360
0.45
350
0.30
340
CO2 0.15
330
0
320 −0.15

310 − 0.30

300 − 0.45
1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
40.11 Year
 The Greenhouse Effect and
Global Warming
• The greenhouse effect is caused by
atmospheric CO2
– But is necessary to keep the surface of the
Earth at a habitable temperature
• Increased levels of atmospheric CO2 are
magnifying the greenhouse effect
– Which could cause global warming and
significant climatic change

40.11
 Depletion of Atmospheric
Ozone
• Life on Earth is protected from the
damaging effects of UV radiation
– By a protective layer or ozone molecules
present in the atmosphere

40.12
 • Satellite studies of the atmosphere
– Suggest that the ozone layer has been gradually
thinning since 1975
350

Ozone layer thickness (Dobson units) 300

250

200

150

100

50

0
1955 1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005
Year (Average for the month of October)
40.12
 • The destruction of atmospheric ozone
– Probably results from chlorine-releasing
pollutants produced by human activity
1 Chlorine from CFCs interacts with ozone (O3),
forming chlorine monoxide (ClO) and
oxygen (O2).
Chlorine atoms

O2

Chlorine O3

ClO

O2

3 Sunlight causes
Cl2O2 to break ClO
down into O2
and free Cl2O2 2 Two ClO molecules
chlorine atoms. react, forming
The chlorine chlorine peroxide (Cl2O2).
40.12 atoms can begin
Sunlight
the cycle again.
 • Scientists first described an “ozone hole”
– Over Antarctica in 1985; it has increased in
size as ozone depletion has increased

(a) October 1979 (b) October 2000

40.12