2.

3 Study guide

IB ESS
 Use the diagram to answer
the following questions:

1. How much solar

radiation is being
emitted?
All the solar energy is
measured in Joules. 2. What happens to 67J
of solar energy?

3. What percentage of
incoming solar energy
is reflected by the
clouds and
atmosphere?

4. How much energy is

absorbed by the
surface?

5. Will all the energy

absorbed at the
surface be used by
plants? Why/why not?
Only around 0.06% of the solar radiation falling to the Earth is
captured by plants.
• What happens to the other 99.04%?
• What happens to that small amount of energy as we move
through the trophic levels?

0.009%
0.09%
0.9%

0.1% 0.01%
 Remember…
• Energy continually flows through a system.
• We give out energy all the time. How?
• How is energy stored within organisms?
• Materials (matter), e.g. nutrients, oxygen, carbon dioxide or
water are cycled and recycled within ecosystems.

Which arrows represent

energy and which represent
matter?

How do you know?

 What happens to the energy?
1st law of thermodynamics?
Energy is neither created nor destroyed but can
be changed from one form to another

So… how is the light energy entering the planet

transformed?
 What happens to the energy?
2nd law of thermodynamics?
The efficiency of energy conversion to useful work is
never perfect

So what does that mean for the energy as it moves

through the trophic levels?

What does that mean about the number of trophic

levels in a food chain?
 Conversion of energy into food
Efficiency of conversion of energy to food is low…
• About 2-3% in terrestrial systems and 1% in
aquatic systems.

• Why do you think it is lower in aquatic systems?

Producers
• NPP = GPP – R

Consumers
• GSP = Food eaten – fecal losses
• NSP = change in mass over time
• NSP = GSP – R
 Net Primary Productivity (NPP)
• The total gain in energy or biomass per unit
area per unit time by green plants after
allowing for loss by respiration
Pyramids of productivity
pyramid of productivity
Gross secondary productivity(GSP): is gained through absorption in consumers.

Net secondary productivity(NSP): The gain by consumers in energy or biomass per unit
area per unit time remaining after allowing for respiratory losses.

Secondary productivity:
NSP = GSP – R
GSP = food eaten – faecal loss

Calculate the GSP for the caterpillar

Calculate the NSP for the caterpillar

Chemical elements on
Earth are finite

Living organisms have

been using the same
supply for over 3 billion
years

Chemical elements are

endlessly recycled

Organisms absorb the

elements that they
require as inorganic
nutrients (e.g. P,K,
C,H,O) from the abiotic
environment, use them
and then return the
atoms unchanged back
to the environment
Carbon cycle diagrams vary greatly in the detail they contain. This one shows not only the
sinks and the flows, but also estimates carbon storage and movement in gigatons/year.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Diagram_showing_a_simplified_representation_of_the_Earth%27s
_annual_carbon_cycle_%28US_DOE%29.png
You need to be able to produce a simplified carbon cycle. Use the following Key:
sinks and flows (processes) to build a carbon cycle: Sink
Flow
Carbon compounds CO2 in the atmosphere and
in fossil fuels hydrosphere (oceans)

Carbon compounds in Carbon compounds Carbon compounds in

producers (autotrophs) in consumers dead organic matter

Cell respiration
Photosynthesis Incomplete decomposition
& fossilisation
Egestion
Feeding

Combustion
Dissolving
Death

n.b. some of the flows will need to be used more than once.
Which flow is missing from the diagram below? Key:
Where will you add it? Sink
Flow
CO2 in the atmosphere and Ce
ti on ll r
s e s pi
m bu hydrosphere (e.g. oceans)
rati
Co on

Ce
Feedin

esis
ation
tion

ll r
g

e
sp
synth
bus

espir

ira
tio
Com

Photo Feeding Egestio

n
Cell r

n
Carbon compounds Carbon compounds
in fossil fuels in consumers
Dea
th Carbon compounds in
dead organic matter
e d ing
Fe
Incomplete
decomposition &
fossilisation
Death
Carbon compounds in
producers (autotrophs)
You need to be able to produce a simplified carbon cycle. Use the following Key:
sinks and flows (processes) to build a carbon cycle: Sink
Flow
CO2 in the atmosphere
se and Ce
ti on
he lp p ra c ti ll r
bu
s
vi de o to hydrosphere (e.g. oceans) e s pi
CU
t he
omse rati
w in g sk ills* on

Ce
your dra Feedin

esis
ation
tion

ll r
g

e
sp
synth
bus

espir

ira
tio
Com

Photo Feeding Egestio

n
Cell r

n
Carbon compounds Carbon compounds
in fossil fuels in consumers
Dea
th Carbon compounds in
dead organic matter
e d ing
Fe
Incomplete
decomposition & http://youtu.be/CitOibRcCcI

fossilisation
Death
Carbon
*this is a good resource, compounds
but there in in the video –
is one mistake
producers
carbon is egested, when (autotrophs)
not digested by an organism, not excreted.
You need to be able to produce a simplified carbon cycle. Use the following Key:
sinks and flows (processes) to build a carbon cycle: Sink
Flow
CO2 in the atmosphere and Ce
ti on ll r
s e
s pi
Extend bu
m your understanding:
hydrosphere (e.g. oceans)
rati
Co on

Ce
1. Between which sinks would you add a flow showing volcanoesFand the
eeding weathering

esis
ation
tion

ll r
of rocks?

e
sp
synth
bus

espir
2. What additional sink would you add to show the role of corals and shellfish? What

ira
tio
Com

additional flow would be needed? Feeding

Photo Egestio

n
Cell r

3. In some environments water is unable to drain out of soils so they n

become
Carbon compounds Carbon compounds
waterlogged
in fossil fuels and anaerobic. This prevents the decomposition of dead organic
in consumers
matter forming peat deposits. Peat can be dried and burnt Das a fuel. Suggest how
eat Carbon compounds in
peat could be added to the carbon cycle. h
4. Explain why fossil fuels are classified as non-renewable dead organic
resources when the carbon matter
in g
eed to the pictorial carbon cycle).
cycle indicates they are renewed (hint: Frefer
Incomplete
5. Diffusion is a flow that moves CO2 from the atmosphere to the hydrosphere and
decomposition
back again.&Taken together these flowsare largest in the cycle; suggest why.
fossilisation
Death
Carbon compounds in
producers (autotrophs)
You need to be able to produce a simplified carbon cycle. Use the following Key:
sinks and flows (processes) to build a carbon cycle: Sink
Flow
CO2 in the atmosphere and Ce
ti on ll r
s e s pi
m bu hydrosphere (e.g. oceans)
rati
Co on

Ce
Feedin

esis
ation
tion

ll r
g

esp
synth
bus

….
espir
ks

ira
b o n si n
car Feeding ic and
e

tio
Com

o n si d e r
Photot h g a n Egestio
c r

n
w o
Cell r

N o twe e n t h e Carbon in a
compounds
n
Carbon compounds
n ti a te b e p s c i rc l e
Differe
in fossil fuels s in k s ( pe rhain consumers
rg a ni c c a rbon
i no u r ? )
Dea
th Carbon compounds in
t c ol o
differen g
dead organic matter
d in
Fee
Incomplete
decomposition &
fossilisation
Death
Carbon compounds in
producers (autotrophs)
Watch this animation
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ClimateCha
nging/ClimateScienceInfoZone/ExploringEarthscl
imate/1point7.aspx

What are the main ways that humans have

altered the carbon cycle?
K.GURU CHARAN KUMAR IB ESS GURUMANTRA.COM

It is one of nature’s
great ironies…
Nitrogen is an essential
component of DNA, RNA, and
proteins—the building blocks
of life.
Although the majority of the
air we breathe is nitrogen,
most living organisms are
unable to use nitrogen as it
exists in the atmosphere!
Introduction to the nitrogen cycle
 How does N
N

atmospheric
nitrogen get changed
into a form that can
be used by most
living organisms?
 By traveling through one of the four
processes in the Nitrogen Cycle!
(1) Nitrogen Fixation
(4) Denitrification

Nitrogen
Cycle

(3) Nitrification (2) Ammonification

 Nitrogen in
the air

nitrogen fixing plant

eg pea, clover animal protein
plant made
protein

denitrifying dead plants & animals

root nodules Pseudomonas
urine & faeces
(containing Rhizobium) denitrificans
decomposition by bacteria &
nitrates
absorbed Azobacter
fungi
(free-living)
nitrates ammonia

Nitrobac Nitrosomon
ter nitrites as
(nitrifying bacteria)
K.GURU CHARAN KUMAR IB ESS GURUMANTRA.COM
Read the
article here
http://www.e
sa.org/esa/do
cuments/201
3/03/issues-in
-ecology-issue
-1.pdf

Summarise
the different
ways that
humans have
impacted the
nitrogen cycle
in the table in
your
workbook
Energy flow diagrams…
How are the
Light
storages
represented? Producers (autotrophs) Death

Food
How are the flows

Heat and respiration

represented? Primary consumers
(herbivores) DOM
Death and
faeces
Why are the arrows Food

different sizes? Death and

Secondary consumers faeces
(carnivores)
 The data in the table below relate to the transfer of energy in a small
clearly defined habitat. The units in each case are in kJ.m-2.yr-1

Gross Respiratory Loss to

Trophic Level Production Loss decomposers

Producers 60724 36120 477

Herbivores 21762 14700 3072

First Carnivores 714 576 42

Top Carnivores 7 4 1
Respiratory loss 3120
by decomposers

Construct an energy flow model to represent all

these data
 ENERGY FLOW MODEL

R=36120 R=14700 R=576 R=4

60724 21762 714 1st. 7 Top

Producers Herbivores Carnivores Carnivores

3072 42

477 1

Decomposers

R=3120
 Maximum Sustainable Yield
Highest amount of natural capital that can be
removed each year without depleting its original
stock or its potential for replenishment

The largest crop or catch that can be removed

while leaving enough individuals behind to
reproduce again. The MSY is equivalent to the
NPP or NSP of a system.