What

is an Ecosystem?

An ecosystem includes all of the living things (plants, animals and organisms) in a given area,
interacting with each other, and also with their non-living environments (weather, earth, sun, soil,
climate, and atmosphere).

In an ecosystem, each organism has its' own niche, or role to play.

Consider a small puddle at the back of your home. In it, you may find all sorts of living things, from
microorganisms, to insects and plants. These may depend on non-living things like water, sunlight,
turbulence in the puddle, temperature, atmospheric pressure and even nutrients in the water for
life.

This very complex, wonderful interaction of living things and their environment, has been the
foundations of energy flow and recycle of carbon and nitrogen.
Anytime a stranger (living thing(s) or external factor such as rise in temperature) is introduced to
an ecosystem, it can be disastrous to that ecosystem. This is because the new organism (or factor)
can distort the natural balance of the interaction and potentially harm or destroy the ecosystem.
Usually, biotic members of an ecosystem, together with their abiotic factors depend on each
other. This means the absence of one member, or one abiotic factor can affect all parties of the
ecosystem.
Unfortunately ecosystems have been disrupted, and even destroyed by natural disasters such as
fires, floods, storms and volcanic eruptions. Human activities have also contributed to the
disturbance of many ecosystems and biomes.

Biomes and Ecosystems

Biomes are large regions of the world with similar plants, animals, and other living things that are
adapted to the climate and other conditions.

Earth's biomes are areas with similar climate, geography, and other conditions as well as similar
plants, animals, and other living things.

Related links:
Ocean biome
Tundra biome
Tropical rainforest biome
Arctic tundra
Temperate forest biome
Grassland biome
Desert biome
Tundra
Taiga
Temperate forest
Tropical rainforest
Desert
Grassland
Ocean biome
A biome is made of many similar ecosystems. An ecosystem is often much smaller than a biome,
although the size varies.

Ecosystems are the interactions between the living things and the nonliving things in a place. In an
ecosystem, the plants, animals, and other organisms rely on each other and on the physical
environment the soil, water, and nutrients, for example.
Even though they are living in the same place, each species in an ecosystem has its own role to
play. This role is called a niche. The niche for one species might be to climb trees and eat their
fruit, while the niche for another species might be to hunt for small rodents. For a tree, a niche
might be to grow tall and make food with the Suns energy through the process of photosynthesis.
If the niche of two species is very similar, they might compete for food or other resources.
Sometimes ecosystems get out of balance. If, for example, it rains a lot and a type of bird that
thrives with extra water increases in numbers, other species in the ecosystem might be crowded
out. The birds might take food or space or other resources from other species. They might eat all
the food. Sometimes an ecosystem naturally gets back into balance. Other times an ecosystem
will become more and more out of balance. Today, human actions are having an impact on
ecosystems all over the world. Making buildings and roads, fishing and farming all have an impact
on ecosystems. Pollution on land, air pollution, and water pollution is sending many ecosystems
out of balance too.

Scales of Ecosystems
Ecosystems come in indefinite sizes. It can exist in a small area such as underneath a rock, a
decaying tree-trunk, or a pond in your village, or it can exist in large forms such as an entire rain
forest. Technically, the Earth can be called a huge ecosystem.

The illustration above shows an example of a small (decaying tree trunk) ecosystem
To make things simple, let us classify ecosystems into three main scales.

Micro:
A small scale ecosystem such as a pond, puddle, tree trunk, under a rock etc.
Messo:
A medium scale ecosystem such as a forest or a large lake.
Biome:
A very large ecosystem or collection of ecosystems with similar biotic and abiotic factors such as
an entire Rain forest with millions of animals and trees, with many different water bodies running
through them.
Ecosystem boundaries are not marked (separated) by rigid lines. They are often separated by
geographical barriers such as deserts, mountains, oceans, lakes and rivers. As these borders are
never rigid, ecosystems tend to blend into each other. This is why a lake can have many small
ecosystems with their own unique characteristics. Scientists call this blending ecotone
Ecosystems can be put into 2 groups. If the ecosystem exists in a water body, like an ocean,
freshwater or puddle, it is called an aquatic ecosystem. Those that exists outside of water bodies
are called terrestrial ecosystems.

The Desert Biome

Deserts make up about 20% of total land cover on earth and are characterized by little
(less than 50cm/yr.) or no rainfall. Desert biomes come in four major kinds each of these having
their unique features, but have similarities in their biotic and abiotic makeup. They are the
Hot and Dry Deserts, Semi-Arid Deserts, Coastal Deserts and Cold Deserts, and within these are
many deserts located in many places of the world.
Desert biomes have very high temperatures because of the little vegetative cover, less cloud cover,
low atmospheric moisture and the lands exposure to the sun. Humidity is very low, with a few
events of very little rain in a year.
Soil cover is shallow and rocky, as a result of very little weathering (breakdown) and supports only
a few plant types. Soils have very little or no organic matter, and very low in salt content.
Plants that survive here are short shrubs and cacti, which
have the ability to conserve water. Plants are also less leafy,
using their stems for photosynthesis. Examples of plants are
the yuccas and the sotol.
Animals here tend to burrow, or stay in hideaways till dusk
to avoid the heat. They are mainly small carnivores, birds,
insects, snakes and lizards, and are adapted to survive with
very little water. Examples of the Hot and Dry Desert biomes
include the Sahara of North Africa and the Chihuahuan of
Southern USA and parts of Mexico.
Semiarid Desert biomes include the sagebrush of Utah, Montana and Great Basin. Atacama Desert
of Chile and Peru are examples of Coastal Desert biomes.

The Aquatic Biome

This includes all water bodies on the earths surface. Aquatic biomes are grouped into two,
Freshwater Biomes (lakes and ponds, rivers and streams, wetlands) and Marine Biomes
(oceans, coral reefs and estuaries). These biomes make up about 73% of the total
earths surface.
Life forms in these waters depend on the abiotic factors such as sunlight entering the waters,
temperature, pressure, salt content and so on. Water biomes with lots of light tend to have
more flora (plant) diversity, and the growth of algae and plankton is more. Small water bodies
that freeze during the cold seasons, or dry out in the dry and hot seasons tend to have less
diversity.
Examples of animals found in marine biomes include star
fishes, sharks and tuna and sea birds. Examples of animals
in freshwater biomes include salmon, tilapia worms,
water-surface insects and crabs.
Aquatic biomes are very important because apart from
being home to millions of water animals, they also form the
basis of the water cycle and help with atmospheric moisture,
cloud formation and precipitation. One example of a marine
biome is the Great Barrier Reef (a coral reef system) of
Australia.
An example of a fresh water biome is the Amazon River in Brazil.

The Forest Biome

Forests make up about 30% of the total land cover on earth, and are of incredible value to life on
earth. They are a store of carbon and play a very important role in climate control. They have a
watershed role, and are a source of many raw materials that humans depend on. It is believed
that forests have the most bio-diversity. A small portion of the Rainforests, for example, may be
home to millions of insects, birds, animals and plants. There are three main biomes that make up
Forest Biomes. These are the Tropical Rainforest, Temperate and Boreal Forests (also called the
Taiga)
Temperatures of forests biomes (especially the tropical rainforest) are generally high all year
though, but a lot cooler at the surface. This is because there is very little sunlight reaching the
forest floors as a result of the heavy vegetative cover.
Humidity is extremely high with lots of rainfall, exceeding 200cm all year though.
Soils are loose and very airy, with high acidity and decaying organic matter.
Plant types of the Tropical Rainforests are usually huge trees with buttress roots, lots of large green
leaves and shallow roots. Ferns and palms are also common. Plants in the Temperate forests are
less dense with a bit of sunlight reaching the floors. Tree types include the willow, basswood and
elm. Plants of the Boreal are mostly conifers with needle-like leaves. There is very little understory
and lots of light at the floors. Trees like fir and spruce are common.
Small mammals, birds, insects and bats are common in the
tropical rainforests, as they either can fly up for sunlight or
do not need sunlight. However all the forest biomes have lots
of skunks, deer, squirrels, foxes, birds and reptiles.
An example of the Tropical Rainforest is the Amazon. Other
examples are the Scandinavian forest (boreal) and those in
the North East of America.

The grassland biome

As the name suggests, these are massive areas dominated by one or a few species of grass, with a
few sparsely distributed trees. There are two main types of grassland biomes: the Savanna
Grasslands and the Temperate Grasslands. One major savanna is located in Africa, and takes up
more than a third of the continents land area. Others can be found in India, South America and
Australia. Temperate grasslands can be found in South Africa, Argentina, and some plains in
Central North America.
If the grassland is prevented to develop into a forest by climatic conditions such as rainfall, it is
termed as climatic savannas. If their characteristics are kept by soils, they are termed as edaphic
savannas. Sometimes, large animals such as elephants can constantly disturb young trees from
taking over grasslands. Human causes like farming or bush fires can also prevent grasslands from
developing into forests. Such grasslands are termed derived savannas.
Soils in savanna are thin layered and do not hold water. The soils contain some organic matter
from dead grass, which is the main source of nutrients for plants.
Rainfall is moderate, and not enough to cause major floods.
Animals in the savannas include large mammals such as
Lions, hyenas, snakes, giraffes, buffaloes with lots of insects.
Temperatures in the Temperate grasslands are extreme,
with high summer and freezing winter temperatures.
Animals here include hawks, owls, deer, mice, foxes, rabbits
and spiders. Temperate grasslands with short grasses are
called steppes and those with tall grasses are called
prairies

The Tundra Biome

This is known to be the coldest of all the terrestrial (land) biomes, with the least bio-diversity
capacity. Tundra got its name from Tunturia a Finnish word that means barren land. This biome
has very little rain and extremely freezing temperatures, and covers about a fifth of the earths
land surface.
There are two major tundra biomes: The Arctic Tundra and the Alpine Tundra. The Arctic tundra is
located around the north-pole in the northern hemisphere. This biome has temperatures of about
2-3 in the summer and about -35 in the winter. Bogs and ponds are common as a result of
constantly frozen surface moisture and melted permafrost.

Plants in the Arctic Tundra are short and grow closely to each
there. Examples include mosses, heaths and lichen. They are
adapted to perform photosynthesis even in the freezing
conditions. Animals here include herbivores like hares and
squirrels. Carnivores include polar bears and
artic foxes. It also has lots of birds, insets and fish like cod
and salmon.
The Alpine Tundra is very cold, located on top of high
mountains, often with very few trees and very little
vegetative cover. They are icy for a larger part of the year.
Animals in this biome include some birds, mountains goats
and marmots. There are also beetles and butterflies.

Trophic levels of food chains.

The levels of a food chain (food pyramid) is called Trophic levels. The trophic level of an organism is the
level it holds in a food pyramid.

The sun is the source of all the energy in food chains. Green plants, usually the first level of any food chain,
absorb some of the Suns light energy to make their own food by photosynthesis. Green plants (autotrophs)
are therefore known as Producers in a food chain.
The second level of the food chains is called the Primary Consumer. These consume the green plants.
Animals in this group are usually herbivores. Examples include insects, sheep, caterpillars and even cows.
The third in the chain are Secondary Consumers. These usually eat up the primary consumers and other
animal matter. They are commonly called carnivores and examples include lions, snakes and cats.
The fourth level is called Tertiary Consumers. These are animals that eat secondary consumers.
Quaternary Consumers eat tertiary consumers.
At the top of the levels are Predators. They are animals that have little or no natural enemies. They are the
bosses of their ecosystems. Predators feed on preys. A prey is an animal that predators hunt to kill and
feed on. Predators include owls, snakes, wild cats, crocodiles and sharks. Humans can also be called
predators.
When any organism dies, detrivores (like vultures, worms and crabs) eat them up. The rest are broken down
by decomposers (mostly bacteria and fungi), and the exchange of energy continues. Decomposers start the
cycle again.

Energy Flow (ECOLOGY)

Left: Energy flow diagram of a frog. The frog represents a node in an extended food web. The
energy ingested is utilized for metabolic processes and transformed into biomass. The energy flow
continues on its path if the frog is ingested by predators, parasites, or as a decaying carcass in soil.
This energy flow diagram illustrates how energy is lost as it fuels the metabolic process that
transform the energy and nutrients into biomass.
Right: An expanded three link energy food chain (1. plants, 2. herbivores, 3. carnivores) illustrating
the relationship between food flow diagrams and energy transformity. The transformity of energy
becomes degraded, dispersed, and diminished from higher quality to lesser quantity as the energy
within a food chain flows from one trophic species into another.
Abbreviations: I=input, A=assimilation, R=respiration, NU=not utilized, P=production, B=biomass.
In ecology, energy flow, also called the calorific flow, refers to the flow of energy through a food
chain. In an ecosystem, ecologists seek to quantify the relative importance of different
component species and feeding relationships.
A general energy flow scenario follows:
Solar energy is fixed by the photoautotrophs, called primary producers, like
green plants. Primary consumers absorb most of the stored energy in the plant
through digestion, and transform it into the form of energy they need, such as adenosine
triphosphate (ATP), through respiration. A part of the energy received by primary
consumers, herbivores, is converted to body heat (an effect of respiration), which is radiated
away and lost from the system. The loss of energy through body heat is far greater in warmblooded animals, which must eat much more frequently than those that are cold-blooded.
Energy loss also occurs in the expulsion of undigested food (egesta)
by excretion or regurgitation.
Secondary
consumers, carnivores, then consume the primary consumers,
although omnivores also consume primary producers. Energy that had been used by the
primary consumers for growth and storage is thus absorbed into the secondary consumers
through the process of digestion. As with primary consumers, secondary consumers convert
this energy into a more suitable form (ATP) during respiration. Again, some energy is lost from
the system, since energy which the primary consumers had used for respiration and regulation
of body temperature cannot be utilized by the secondary consumers.

Tertiary consumers, which may or may not be apex predators, then consume the secondary
consumers, with some energy passed on and some lost, as with the lower levels of the food
chain.
A final link in the food chain are decomposers which break down the organic matter of the
tertiary consumers (or whichever consumer is at the top of the chain) and
release nutrients into the soil. They also break down plants, herbivores and carnivores that
were not eaten by organisms higher on the food chain, as well as the undigested food that is
excreted by herbivores and carnivores. Saprotrophic bacteria and fungi are decomposers, and
play a pivotal role in the nitrogen and carbon cycles.

The energy is passed on from trophic level to trophic level and each time about 90% of the energy
is lost, with some being lost as heat into the environment (an effect of respiration) and some being
lost as incompletely digested food (egesta). Therefore, primary consumers get about 10% of the
energy produced by autotrophs, while secondary consumers get 1% and tertiary consumers get
0.1%. This means the top consumer of a food chain receives the least energy, as a lot of the food
chain's energy has been lost between trophic levels. This loss of energy at each level limits typical
food chains to only four to six links.