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Ecosystem and Its Components

The document discusses the key components and functioning of an ecosystem. It defines environment and its living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components. It describes producers, consumers and decomposers as the main biotic components and their trophic interactions through food chains and webs. Critical ecosystem processes like cycling of materials and one-way flow of energy are explained. The concept of balance of nature through interdependence and feedback loops maintaining dynamic equilibrium in the ecosystem is also summarized.

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Sooraj Krishnan
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108 views

Ecosystem and Its Components

The document discusses the key components and functioning of an ecosystem. It defines environment and its living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components. It describes producers, consumers and decomposers as the main biotic components and their trophic interactions through food chains and webs. Critical ecosystem processes like cycling of materials and one-way flow of energy are explained. The concept of balance of nature through interdependence and feedback loops maintaining dynamic equilibrium in the ecosystem is also summarized.

Uploaded by

Sooraj Krishnan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Environment and its Components

 The sum total of all surroundings of a living organism, including


natural forces and other living things, which provide conditions for
development and growth as well as of danger and damage
 Continuous interaction is essential's

1. Maintenance of biodiversity

2. Maintenance of all gaseous and material cycles and


interdependence of living organisms among themselves and
with a biotic environments

3. Maintenance of ecological order and natural balance, which


depend on the food chain relationship, sustainable
productivity and biotic interaction
Comprises of Biotic and Abiotic components

Abiotic Components Biotic Components


Light Plants
Humidity & Water Animals –Humans,
Temperature parasites and micro-
Atmospheric Gases organisims
Topography etc Decomposers
Ecosystem and its Components
The study of the relationship between organisms and between the organisms
and the environment is ecology.

The structural and functional unit of ecology is known as the ecosystem.

Continuous production and exchange of materials between the living and non-
living components.

Plants and animals of a regional climate and soil type interact to produce a
characteristic land community known as biome.

In biome emphasis is on the biotic community


Biotic Component

 All living components of the environment

 The biotic component can be categorized as

1. Autotrophic Component or Producers


2. Heterotrophic Component or Consumers
Autotrophs or Primary producers

 All those organisms green plants, bacteria and algae which


contain chlorophyll and is capable of converting solar
energy into chemical energy and storing food stuff in the
presence of carbon dioxide and water
Heterotrophs or Consumers

 All other organism unable to make their own food


but depend on other organism for food to meet their
energy needs for survival.

 Depending on feeding habits they can be classified as

a. Primary Consumers
b. Secondary Consumers
c. Tertiary Consumers
Secondary and tertiary consumers may be

1. Predators which hunt, capture and kill their prey

2. Carrion feeders which feed on corpses

3. Parasites which are smaller than host, live either inside or outside
the host. Depend on the metabolism of their hosts for their food
supply

4. Animals with flexible food habits- omnivores


Saprophytes or Decomposers

 The dead bodies of producers and consumers are eaten and


broken down into simple inorganic substances by certain
microbes.
 The simple substances are utilized again by producers to
prepare food.
 Water, carbon dioxide, phosphates, nitrogen ,sulphates and
organic compounds are by-products of activity of orgnisms
Abiotic Components

 Inorganic and non living parts


 Limiting factor
Trophic levels

Links in the food chain are known as trophic levels.

Energy flows from each level

From lower to higher

Loss of energy at each level


Food Chain

 A sequence of organism that feed on one another for


survival----- food chain.

 Some animals eat only one kind of food and


therefore are members of a single food chain.
Man can neither increase the amount of energy nor
improve efficiency in energy transfer- but can shorten the
food chain.

25,000 cal
Types of Food Chains

 Grazing food chain

 Detritus food chain


Food Web

 Food chains inter-linked with one another to form a


food web.
 It constitutes a number of alternate paths for energy
flow and provides greater stability to the ecosystem
Bioaccumulation and Biomagnifications

 refers to how pollution enters a food chain. Here


there is an increase in concentration of a pollutant
from the environment to the first organism in a food
chain.
 Refers to the tendency of pollutants to concentrate
as they move from one tropic level to the next.
the pollutant must
1. Long-lived
2. Mobile
3. Soluble in fats
4. Biologically active
Material Cycling and Energy Flow

 Energy does not cycle in the ecosystem, its flow is


unidirectional.
 First law-energy cannot be created or
destroyed it can change from one form to
another.
 Energy passes from herbivore to carnivore not vice versa
 The ecosystem can maintain its entity and prevent the
collapse of the system due to unidirectional energy flow
Balance of Nature

 The component parts like food chain, material cycling and


energy flow are closely interrelated to different organisms
thereby maintaining a dynamic equilibrium amongst them.
 The science of systems of control in an ecosystem is known
as cybernetics

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