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Component Function of Ecosystem

Ecology is defined as the study of the interrelationships between organisms and their environment. It can be divided into autecology, which examines individual species, and synecology, which examines communities. An ecosystem is the interaction between living and non-living components in an environment, such as a pond or forest. Ecosystems have biotic factors like producers, consumers, and decomposers, as well as abiotic factors like soil, air and water. Ecosystems regulate essential processes, support life, maintain stability, cycle nutrients, balance trophic levels, and cycle minerals through energy flow from the sun to producers and other organisms.

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407 views

Component Function of Ecosystem

Ecology is defined as the study of the interrelationships between organisms and their environment. It can be divided into autecology, which examines individual species, and synecology, which examines communities. An ecosystem is the interaction between living and non-living components in an environment, such as a pond or forest. Ecosystems have biotic factors like producers, consumers, and decomposers, as well as abiotic factors like soil, air and water. Ecosystems regulate essential processes, support life, maintain stability, cycle nutrients, balance trophic levels, and cycle minerals through energy flow from the sun to producers and other organisms.

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online classes
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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ECOLOGY

The term Ecology was coined by Reiter.


The meaning of the word ecology was given by German
Biologist Ernst Hackel in 1869.
• The word ecology is derived from Greek words ‘Oikos’
meaning house, habitat or place of living and ‘Logos’
meaning to study.
• Ecology is defined as the study of interrelationship of
different organisms with each other and with their
environment.
Classification of Ecology
Based on study area :
1. Autecology : It deals with the study of an individual
species of organisms and it’s population.
The ecologists study the behavior and adaptations of
particular species to the environmental condition at every
stage of that individual’s life cycle. It is also called the
Species ecology.
2. Synecology: It deals with the study of communities,
their composition, their behavior and relation with the
environment. It is also called as Ecology of communities.
It is further divided into 3 types:
1) Population Ecology
2) Community Ecology
3) Ecosystem Ecology
ECOSYSTEM
ECOSYSTEM: The term Ecosystem was first proposed
by A.G. Tansley in 1935. he defined it as “the system
resulting from the interaction of all the living and non
living factors of the Environment. There are many
examples of ecosystems - a pond, a forest, an estuary, a
grassland. The living community of plants and animals
in any area together with the non-living components of
the environment such as soil, air and water, constitute the
ecosystem
Types of Ecosystem
Natural Ecosystems : These operate under natural
conditions without any major interference by man.
i.Terrestrial Ecosystem : Forest, grassland, desert, etc.
ii. Aquatic Ecosystem :
a. Fresh water : Lotic (running water like spring, stream,
or rivers)
or Lentic (standing water as lake, pond, pools, etc.)
b. Marine water : Such as deep bodies as ocean or
shallow ones as Sea or an estuary. Lentic (standing
water) lake ecosystem Lotic (flowing water) river
ecosystem
Artificial (Man Engineered) Ecosystems : These are
maintained artificially by man where by addition of
energy and planned manipulation, natural balance is
disturbed regularly e.g., crop land ecosystem. Aquarium
,Plantation ,fields

Components of Ecosystem
. Biotic factors
. •Made up of biological components consisting of living
plants, animals and microorganisms. •The Major
Biological Components of Ecosystem :
a. Producers (Autotrophs)(self-feeders) – Make their
own food from compounds that are obtained from
their environment. – Are the source of all food in an
ecosystem. – On land most producers are green
plants. – In freshwater and marine ecosystems, algae
and plants are the major producers near shorelines.
– In open water, the dominant producers are
phytoplankton (most of them microscopic) that float
or drift in the water. – Most producers capture
sunlight to make carbohydrates (such as glucose) by
photosynthesis.
b. b. Consumers (Heterotrophs) (“other feeders”) Get
their energy and nutrients by feeding on other
organisms or their remains. i. Primary consumers :
Are those that eat producers (plants) as a source of
food. They are also known as herbivores. ii.
Secondary consumers or carnivores : Eat other
animals. iii. Tertiary Consumers : Large Carnivores
which feed on secondary consumers. iv. Quaternary
Consumers : Largest Carnivores that feed on tertiary
consumers. They are not eaten by any animals3.
Decomposer : • Mostly certain types of bacteria and
fungi recycle organic matter in ecosystems. • They
do this by breaking down (biodegrading) dead
organic material to get nutrients and releasing the
resulting simpler inorganic compounds into the soil
and water, where they can be taken up as nutrients
by producers.
FUNCTIONS OF ECOSYSTEM
1. It regulates the essential ecological processes,
supports life systems and renders stability.
Both biotic and abiotic components live in an
ecosystem which interact with each other forming a
stable, self-supporting system.
2.It is also responsible for the cycling
of nutrients between biotic and abiotic components.
The plants take inorganic material from the soil and
convert it into food with help of sunlight. The food
is used to produce chemical energy by the secondary
level organism which breaks them into simple
organic compound when the secondary level
organism dies it gets decomposed by the action of
decomposers which convert the complex substance
to simple inorganic substance which are then mixed
with soil. Thus, the ecosystem is designed to recycle
nutrients.
3.It maintains a balance among the various trophic
levels in the ecosystem.
4.It cycles the minerals through the biosphere.
5.The abiotic components help in the synthesis of
organic components that involves the exchange of
energy.
Energy Flow: energy takes place to all the organisms
in the ecosystem.
Energy flows in an unidirectional manner starting
from sunlight to producers, herbivores, carnivores
and finally decomposers thus utilising solar energy
to produce chemical energy in the form of glucose
by plants which are the main source of energy for all
living organisms.

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