XII.14.

ECOSYSTEM
 Ecosystem is a functional unit of nature where living organisms interact among themselves
and with the surrounding physical environment.
 Biosphere can be considered as a global ecosystem.
 Ecosystem is mainly of two types : terrestrial and aquatic.
 Terrestrial ecosystems - forest, grassland, desert
 Aquatic ecosystems - pond, lake, wetland, river, estuary
 Man-made ecosystems - crop fields, aquarium

ECOSYSTEM - STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION

 Characteristic physical structure for each type of ecosystem results from the interaction of
biotic and abiotic components.
 Species composition and stratification are the two main structural features of an ecosystem.
 Identification and enumeration of plant and animal species of an ecosystem gives its species
composition.
 Vertical distribution of different species occupying different levels is called stratification.
 In a forest ecosystem, trees occupy top vertical strata or layer, shrubs the second and herbs
and grasses occupy the bottom layers.
 Productivity, decomposition, energy flow and nutrient cycling are the four important functional
aspects of an ecosystem.
 Pond ecosystem is a self-sustainable and simple ecosystem that performs all the functions of
any ecosystem and of the biosphere as a whole.
 Abiotic component is the water with all the dissolved inorganic and organic substances and
the rich soil deposit at the bottom of the pond; the solar input, the cycle of temperature, day
length and other climatic conditions regulate the rate of function of the entire pond.
 Autotrophic components include phytoplankton, some algae and the floating, submerged
and marginal plants found at the edges.
 Consumers are represented by zooplankton, the free swimming and bottom dwelling forms.
 Decomposers are fungi, bacteria and flagellates abundant in the bottom of the pond.
 There is unidirectional movement of energy towards the higher trophic levels and its
dissipation and loss as heat to the environment.
PRODUCTIVITY
 A constant input of solar energy is the basic requirement for any ecosystem to function and
sustain.
 Primary production is the amount of biomass or organic matter produced per unit area over a
time period by plants during photosynthesis expressed in terms of weight (g-2) or energy
(kcal m-2).
 Rate of biomass production or productivity is expressed in terms of g -2 yr-1or (kcal m-2 yr-1) and
can be divided into gross primary productivity (GPP) and net primary productivity (NPP).
 Gross primary productivity (GPP) is the rate of production of organic matter during
photosynthesis.
 Considerable amount of GPP is utilised by plants in respiration(R).
 Net primary productivity (NPP) is the available biomass for the consumption to heterotrophs
(herbivores and decomposers).
 NPP = GPP - R
 Secondary productivity is the rate of formation of new organic matter by consumers.
 Primary productivity depends on the plant species inhabiting a particular area, a variety of
environmental factors and availability of nutrients and photosynthetic capacity of plants.
 Annual net primary productivity of the whole biosphere is approximately 170 billion tons (dry
weight) of organic matter.
 Though the water bodies occupy 70% of earth’s surface, the productivity of the oceans is only
55 billion tons.

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DECOMPOSITION
 Break down of complex organic matter into inorganic substances like carbon dioxide, water
and nutrients by decomposers is called decomposition.
 Dead plant remains such as leaves, bark, flowers and dead remains of animals, including fecal
matter, constitute detritus, which is the raw material for decomposition.
 Important steps in the process of decomposition are fragmentation, leaching, catabolism,
humification and mineralisation; they operate simultaneously on the detritus.
 Fragmentation is the process by which detritus are broken down into smaller particles by
detritivores like earthworm.
 Leaching is the process by which water soluble inorganic nutrients go down into the soil
horizon and get precipitated as unavailable salts.
 Catabolism is the degradation of detritus into simpler inorganic substances by the
activityof bacterial and fungal enzymes.
 Humification leads to accumulation of a dark coloured amorphous substance called humus
(being colloidal in nature serves as a reservoir of nutrients) that is highly resistant to
microbial action and undergoes decomposition at an extremely slow rate.
 Mineralisation is the process in which humus is further degraded by some microbes
resulting in the release of inorganic nutrients.
 Decomposition is largely an oxygen-requiring process.
 Rate of decomposition is controlled by
 chemical composition of detritus
 climatic factors
 Decomposition rate is slower if detritus is rich in lignin and chitin, and quicker if rich in
nitrogen and water-soluble substances like sugars.
 Most important climatic factors that regulate decomposition through their effects on the activities
of soil microbes are temperature and soil moisture.
 Warm and moist environment favours decomposition.
 Low temperature and anaerobic conditions inhibit decomposition resulting in the build up
of organic materials.
ENERGY FLOW
 Ecosystems need a constant supply of energy to synthesise the molecules they require, to
counteract the universal tendency of increasing disorderliness.
 Sun is the only source of energy for all ecosystems on Earth except for the deep sea hydro-
thermal ecosystem.
 Of the incident solar radiation only less than 50 % is photosynthetically active radiation
(PAR).
 Plants capture only 2-10 % of the PAR and this small amount of energy sustains the entire
living world.
 Solar energy captured by the green plants flows through different organisms of an ecosystem in
a unidirectional path.
 Starting from the plants, food chains or webs are formed due to the interdependency of organisms.
 No energy trapped into an organism remains in it for ever.
 Green plants are called producers.
 Major producers in a terrestrial ecosystem are herbaceous and woody plants.
 Major producers in an aquatic ecosystem are phytoplankton, algae and higher plants.
 All animals depend on plants, directly or indirectly, for their food and are hence called consumers
or heterotrophs.
 Primary consumers are consumers that feed on the producers (eg: herbivores).
 Primary consumers of terrestrial ecosystem are insects, birds and mammals.
 Primary consumers of an aquatic ecosystem are molluscs.
 Consumers that feed on the herbivores are primary carnivores or secondary consumers.
 Animals that depend on the primary carnivores for food are secondary carnivores or
tertiary consumers.

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 A simple grazing food chain (GFC) consists of :
Grass 
 Goat  Man 

(Producer) (Primary Consumer) (Secondary Consumer)
 Detritus food chain (DFC) begins with dead organic matter (detritus) and is made up of
decomposers or heterotrophs (saprotrophs), mainly fungi and bacteria.
 Heterotrophs meet their energy and nutrient requirements by degrading dead organic matter.
 In an aquatic ecosystem, GFC is the major conduit for energy flow.
 In a terrestrial ecosystem, a much larger fraction of energy flows through the DFC than
through the GFC.
 DFC may be connected with the GFC at some levels.
 The natural interconnection of food chains make a food web.
 Based on the source of their nutrition or food, organisms occupy a specific place in the food
chain known as their trophic level.
 First trophic level - producers (green plants) - eg : phytoplankton, grass, trees
 Second trophic level - primary consumers (herbivores) - eg : zooplankton, grasshopper, cow
 Third trophic level - secondary consumers (carnivores) - eg : birds, fishes, wolf
 Fourth trophic level - tertiary consumers (top carnivores) - eg : man, lion
 During energy flow through different trophic levels, amount of energy decreases at successive
trophic levels as only 10% of the energy is transferred to each trophic level from the lower level.
 Energy of a lower trophic level is always more than that of a higher level.
 Each trophic level has a certain mass of living material at a particular time called standing crop.
 Standing crop is measured as the mass of living organisms (biomass) or the number in a
unit area expressed in terms of fresh or dry weight.
 Number of tropic levels in the grazing food chain is restricted as the transfer of energy follows
10% law.
ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
 When the food or energy relationship between organisms at different trophic levels is expressed
in terms of number, biomass or energy, a shape similar to a pyramid is formed, which is known
as ecological pyramid.
 Pyramid is broad at the base and narrows down towards the apex.
 Base of each pyramid represents producers or the first trophic level while the apex represents
tertiary or top level consumers.
 The three ecological pyramids that are usually studied are pyramid of number, pyramid of
biomass and pyramid of energy.
 In most ecosystems, all the pyramids (number, energy and biomass) are upright as producers
are more in number and biomass than the herbivores, and herbivores are more in number and
biomass than the carnivores.
 Rarely inverted pyramids of biomass and number occur.
 A big tree at the producer level, and insects and birds feeding on it on higher trophic level
gives an inverted pyramid of number.
 Pyramid of biomass in sea is generally inverted because the biomass of fishes far exceeds
that of phytoplankton.
 Small standing crop of phytoplankton supporting a large standing crop of zooplankton forms
an inverted pyramid of biomass.
 Pyramid of energy is always upright, can never be inverted.
 Limitations of ecological pyramids :
 does not take into account the same species belonging to two or more trophic levels (eg : man)
 assumes a simple food chain; does not accommodate a food web
 saprophytes are not given any place even though they play a vital role in the ecosystem
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