Lecture 2

Ecosystems: What Are They

and How Do They Work?
 Outlines

1. Ecological concepts

2. Energy flow

3. Biogeochemical cycles

4. Biodiversity
 Outlines

5. Community and population

6. Evolution and adaptation

 The earth’s systems

 Atmosphere: Thin membrane of air

• Troposphere: air layer about 4–11
miles above sea level, contains
greenhouse gases that absorb and
release energy which warms the
inner layer of the atmosphere.
• Stratosphere: above the
troposphere between 11–31 miles;
it filters out the sun’s harmful
radiation
• Mesosphere
• Ionosphere
 Earth’s systems

 Atmosphere

 Hydrosphere: Liquid water on

surface and underground, ice
and water vapor

 Geosphere: hot core, thick

mantle, and thin crust.

 Biosphere: Living and dead

organisms
 Ecological concepts
 What is ecology?
– “The scientific that focuses on how organisms interact
with one another and with their nonliving environment
of matter and energy” (Miller & Spoolman, 2013)
– “The scientific analysis and study of interactions
among organisms and their environment” (Wikipedia)
– The branch of biology that deals with the relations of
organism to one another and to their physical
surroundings. (Oxford Dictionary)

 Key words:
– Interactions
– Organisms and their environments
 Ecological concepts
 What is ecology?
– Krebs (1985) “the scientific study of the interactions
that determine the distribution and abundance of
organisms”
– Chapman & Reiss (1992) “study of organisms in
relation to the surroundings in which they live”
– The branch of biology that deals with the relations of
organism to one another and to their physical
surroundings. (Oxford Dictionary)

 Key point:
– Interactions between organisms and their
environments
Chapman & Reiss liken ecology to “an enormous
jigsaw puzzle”

For simplicity, this figure

is 2 dimensional, but the
ecological interactions of
Organisms and their
environment are
really multi-dimensional.
Multi-dimensional puzzle

By remove 1 piece, all

pieces will be separated
• Concept of ecology “Earth as a system”
• Studying a living, working and dynamic system.

 It is important to understand patterns and processes to

fixing and minimizing the effects of human activities.

• 2 main questions of ecology:

1. Why are there so many different species?
2. How have they come to live together?

If we want to make predictions about what will happen to an

ecosystem, or if we wish to restore an ecosystem, we
need to apply knowledge gained from answering these
questions
Tide pool Rainforest

What do they have in common?

 Ecology:

The study of connections in life

 Ecosystem:

System involving the interactions between a

community of living organism in a particular area and
its nonliving environment.

• Ecosystems are dynamic: composed of biotic and abiotic

components that interact with earth other.

• Life exists on land system (called biomes) and in freshwater and

ocean aquatic life zones.
The Natural of Ecology
 Level of study in ecology:
• Biosphere – all ecosystems in the entire
Earth.
• Ecosystem – a community +
physical environment
• Community – population living
together in a particular place & their
interactions
• Population – a group of the same
species
• Species – a group of organisms able to
breed and fertile offspring.
• Organism – an individual living thing
Living (biotic)
and non-living
(abiotic)
components of
an ecosystem
 Environmental Unity
 Concept that everything in the environment is
connected, directly or indirectly to everything else

 Any change in system is likely to produce secondary

and tertiary effect with in system and connected systems
 The biosphere share comment characteristics, however
each ecosystem is unique in its own way

 Understanding of ecosystems and its interaction help to

see how they affect or be affected by human activities
and how to make them sustainable is vital for survival
of human race.

 Multitudes of tiny microbes such as bacteria, protozoa,

fungi and yeast help keep us alive
 Common limiting factors
• In terrestrial ecosystems (trên cạn) : Precipitation,
temperature, nutrients

• In aquatic ecosystems (dưới nước): temperature,

sunlight, nutrients, dissolve oxygen and salinity

Law of tolerance
• The existence, abundance and distribution of a species
is determined by levels of one or more physical and
chemical factors.
 Tolerance limits: minimum and maximum levels beyond
which a particular species cannot survive or reproduce

 Limiting factors determines distribution

 Dynamics(sự năng động) of an ecosystem involve 2
processes energy flow and chemical cycling.

What sustains life on Earth?

• Solar energy (one-way flow of high-quality energy)
• The cycling of matter (atoms, ions or compounds needed for
survival by living organisms)
• Gravity (Trọng lực) (allows earth hold on to its atmosphere
and enables the movement of chemicals in matter cycles)

Q: How solar energy sustains life?

Earth energy
 Energy flow
 Energy changes are governed by 2 scientific laws

• The first law of thermodynamics (Định luật bảo toàn

năng lượng) : Whenever energy is converted from one
form to another in a physical or chemical change, no
energy is created or destroyed

• The second law of thermodynamics: we always end up

with a lower quality or less “usable” energy (ít tái tạo)

 Energy efficiency is measure of how much useful work is

accomplished ( đạt được ) by a particular input of energy
into a system
Biological components of ecosystem
 Some organisms in ecosystems product food while
others consume food

 Producer (Autotroph – self feeder) : Organisms use

solar energy (green plants, algae and cyanobacteria) or
chemical energy (some bacteria) to manufacture their
nutrient as organic compounds. Photosynthesis /
chemosynthesis process involve

Light
Carbon dioxide + Water Glucose + Oxygen
Bacteria
Biological components of ecosystem
 Consumer (Heterotroph – other feeder): Organisms that
can not synthesize organic nutrient by themselves , they
have to get it by feeding on tissues of producer or of
other consumers. (không thể tự tạo cdd, mà ăn từ sinh
vật khác)

 Decomposer phân giải(bacteria / fungi): recycle organic

matter by break down dead organic material (hữu cơ )or
detritus to get nutrient.

 Detritivores: (waste eaters and degrader) ăn chất thải và

khử chất: feed on detritus; can transform a fallen tree
trunk into simple inorganic (vô cơ )molecules
 Food chains: sequence of organisms which is a source
of food for the next level / A linear series of feeding
relationships in an ecosystem
 Food chain:
• Energy and nutrient are passed from organism to organism
through the food chain .
 Food webs: In natural, most consumers feed on more
than 1 type of organism. Organism in ecosystems form a
complex network of interconnected food chains.
 Food web:
• A more complex than
a linear food chain
 Trophic levels: Each step in the flow of energy
through an ecosystem / the organism position in the
food chain
• Autotroph are at the base
• Herbivores (loài ăn cỏ) / primary consumers eat
autotrophs
• Carnivore(ăn thịt) / secondary consumer eats
herbivores
• Carnivore / Tertiary consumer can eat other
secondary consumer
• Omnivores(ăn tạp) do not specialize in diets.
• Some other species do not limit their diet to
organism of only 1 trophic level
 Trophic level
Autotrophs Heterotrophs (dị dưỡng)
Detritus feeders
Producers Consumers Decomposer
(ăn chất thải)
Primary consumers/ Fungi( nấm) and
Photosynthesis Primary detritus
carnivores (feed on bacteria that cause
green plants feeders
plants) rotting (thối rữa)

Photosynthesis Omnivores (feed on Secondary detritus

bacteria plants/animal) feeder

Secondary
Chemosynthesis
consumers/
bacteria
carnivores
Higher orders of
consumers/
carnivores
Parasites
• Solar energy enters ecosystems by plant through
photosynthesis that use CO2 , water and sunlight to
convert into glucose and oxygen. Glucose can be
altered; through the addition of other chemicals, into
pigments, lipids, sugar, protein and nucleic acids; and
passed on to other organisms through consumption and
assimilation.

• Decomposers remove the last energy from the remains

of organism. Inorganic nutrients are cycled, energy is
not

• One of major properties of an ecosystem is its

productivity, the amount of biomass (biological
material) produced in a given area during a given period
of time.
 Primary productivity
 Is the production of organic compounds by living
organism. (hữu cơ bơi sv sống)

• It can be expressed in terms of energy per unit area

per unit time, or as biomass of vegetation( sinh khối)
added to the ecosystem per unit area per unit time.

• Organic matters support biological activities in water

column and mainly synthesized by photosynthesis
(quang hợp) or chemosynthesis (hóa tổng hợp)
mechanism.
 How organic matter is produced in aquatic system?
 How the rate of production are controlled?
 Rate of primary production vary greatly in different
area and at different times.

• Gross primary production is total amount of

photosynthesis achieved by plant and algae during a
certain time. Measured in terns of energy production
per unit area over a give length of time (kcal/m2/yr)

• During time, organism is carrying respiration,

breaking down some organic compounds to release
energy. Net primary production is the organic
material that stored after photosynthetic or available
to other consumers in an ecosystem.

Net primary production = Gross primary production – Total respiration

(hô hấp)
Pyramid of Energy flow showing the decrease in usable
chemical energy available at each trophic level
 • The intensity of light varies over space and time.
Photosynthesis rate increase down to certain depth
and then decrease beyond that.

• Exposure to high intensity of light inhibit

photosynthesis (ultraviolet radiation destruct photo-
oxidation reaction)

• Rate of supplied nutrient may determined rate of

primary production. It is often man-originated
enrichments that change the nature of aquatic
ecosystem.

 Eutrophication is the ecosystem response to the addition

of artificial or natural substance (such as Nitrogen and
Phosphorus) to aquatic system. Example: Algae bloom,
red tide.
Algae in China

Red tide at New Zealand

 Primary production
 2 principal primary production control mechanisms are
bottom - up and top - down. The evidence are light and
nutrients.

• Bottom-up control: nutrient supply, productivity and

primary producer control ecosystem structure.
Primarily nutrient and light influence net primary
production in water column and hence on rest of
food web. (do những thằng dưới cùng dk hệ sinh
thái_

Nutrient limitation: after nutrition are added, net

primary production increase. The changes of species
composition often result from the enrichment
• Top-down control: top predator control the structure
or population dynamic of an ecosystem. Example:
sea otters eat urchins, which eat kelp. If otter are
removed, urchin populations grow and reduce the
kelp forest. This mechanism is more important in
fresh water ecology (những tk săn mồi dkhien)

→ →
 Biogeochemical/ nutrient cycles
 Global cycle of nutrients through the air, soil, rock,
water and living organisms. These cycles are driven
directly or indirectly by solar energy and gravity.

 Important cycles include:

• Hydrologic cycle (H2O)

• Carbon cycle
• Nitrogen cycle
• Phosphorus cycle
Water cycle
 Water play an important role in functioning of an
ecosystem. Water corporate into bodies of organism,
medium( chat trung gian) for nutrient exchange between
soil and life and use in photosynthesis, respiration,
evapo-transpiration and precipitation

 Human influence of water cycle include

• Withdraw water from inland watershed for

development purpose (underground, lake, stream….)

• Constructing surface (roads, building…)

• Destructing vegetation (forest)

• Modifying nutrient and chemical (to watershed,

underground water)
Carbon cycle
 Carbon is the basic building block of the carbohydrates,
fats, protein, DNA and other organic compound and the
energy holding chemical bonds.

 Human influence of carbon cycle include

• Burning fossil fuels and wood

• Cleaning trees and other plants

• Greenhouse effect
 Nitrogen cycle

N2 → NH3 → NH4 + → NO3- → NH3 / NH4 + → N2

 N2 −> Nitrogen fixation (cyanobacteria)−> Ammonia (NH3)
−> sinking down −>Ammonification / mineralization
−>Ammonium (NH4+) −> Nitrification −> Nitrite NO2-/
Nitrate NO3- −> Decomposing −> Ammonia (NH3) /
Ammonium (NH4+) −> Denitrification −> N2
 Main reservoir for nitrogen is the atmosphere. Nitrogen gas
makes up 78% of volume of the atmosphere.
 Nitrogen is a crucial component of protein, many vitamins
and nucleic acids (DNA). Nitrogen gas can not be absorbed
and used directly as a nutrient by multi-cellular plants or
animals .
(nito ko lam nguon dinh duong)
 Human influence of nitrogen cycle include
• Burning fossil fuels and wood
• Cleaning trees and other plants
Effects of Human Activities
on the Nitrogen Cycle

Human activities
such as
production of
fertilizers now fix
more nitrogen
than all natural
sources
combined.
50
Phosphorus cycle
 Phosphorus cycle does not include the atmosphere. The
major reservoir for phosphorus is phosphate salt in
terrestrial rock formation and ocean bottoms sediments.
This is a slow cycle.

 Phosphorus is a components of biologically molecules

(nucleic acids), energy transfer molecules (ADP and ATP)
and components of vertebrate bones and teeth.

 Human influence of phosphorus cycle include

• Removing large amount of phosphate to make fertilizer
• Cleaning forest → reducing phosphorus in tropical soils
• Introduce phosphorus to soil as fertilizer
Sulfur cycle
 Sulfur is stored underground in rocks and minerals and deep
under ocean sediments. The rate of this cycle are extremely
variable as result of variable rate of decomposition.
Decomposition can take up to 50 years in tundra while the
tropical forest can occur much faster

 Sulfur is an essential components of proteins.

 Human influence of sulfur cycle include

• Releasing large amounts of sulfur dioxide into
atmosphere by burning sulfur containing coal and oil to
produce electric power
• Refine sulfur containing petroleum to make gasoline,
heating oil and other products.
• Convert sulfur containing metallic ores into 3 metals
such as copper, lead and zinc
 Three Big Ideas
• Life is sustained by the flow of energy from the sun
through the biosphere, the cycling of nutrients within
the biosphere, and gravity.
• Some organisms produce the nutrients they need, some
survive by consuming other organisms, and others
recycle nutrients back to producers.
• Human activities are altering the flow of energy through
food chains and webs, and the cycling of nutrients within
ecosystems and the biosphere.

55
 Next week
4. Biodiversity

5. Community and population

6. Evolution and adaptation

Reading: Chapter 3 & 4 of Miller T.G. and Spoolman S.E.

(2010), Environmental Science, 13th edition, Cengage
Learning Publisher, USA