MATERIAL

CYCLE IN AN
ECOSYSTEM

PREPARED BY: TYPE YOUR NAME HERE

8LT-IVi23

Analyze the roles of

organisms in the
cycling of
materials
Core Case Study:
Tropical Rainforests Are Disappearing (1)
 Found near the equator
 2% land surface
 ~50% world’s known terrestrial plant and
animal species
 ≥50% destroyed or disturbed by humans
 Cutting trees
 Growing crops
 Grazing cattle
 Building settlements
Core Case Study:
Tropical Rainforests Are Disappearing (2)

 Consequences of disappearing
tropical rainforests
1. Decreased biodiversity as species
become extinct
2. Accelerated global warming:
fewer trees to remove carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere
3. Changes regional weather
patterns: can lead to increase in
tropical grasslands
3-1 What Keeps Us and Other
Organisms Alive?
 The four major components of the earth’s
life-support system are the atmosphere (air),
the hydrosphere (water), the geosphere
(rock, soil, sediment), and the biosphere
(living things).

 Lifeis sustained by the flow of energy from

the sun through the biosphere, the cycling of
nutrients within the biosphere, and gravity.
Earth Has Four Major Life-
Support Components
Atmosphere
Hydrosphere
Geosphere
Biosphere
Fig. 3-2, p. 41
 Vegetation
and animals
Atmosphere

Biosphere
Soil
Rock
Lithosphere Crust

Mantle

Biosphere
(living organisms)

Core Atmosphere
Mantle (air)

Crust
(soil and rock)
Geosphere
(crust, mantle, core) Hydrosphere
(water)
Three Factors Sustain Life
on Earth
One-way flow of high-
quality energy from the
sun
Cycling of matter or
nutrients through parts of
the biosphere
Gravity
Solar Energy Reaching the
Earth
 Electromagnetic waves
 Visiblelight
 UV radiation
 Heat
 Natural greenhouse effect
 Energy in = energy out
 Human-enhanced global
warming
Fig. 3-3, p. 41
 Solar
radiation

Reflected by
atmosphere Radiated by
UV radiation
atmosphere
as heat
Most Lower Stratosphere
absorbed (ozone layer)
by ozone Visible Troposphere
light Heat radiated
Heat by the earth

Absorbed Greenhouse
by the earth effect
3-2 What Are the Major
Components of an
Ecosystem?
 Concept 3-2 Some
organisms produce the
nutrients they need, others
get the nutrients they need
by consuming other
organisms, and some recycle
nutrients back to producers
by decomposing the wastes
and remains of organisms.
Ecology
 How organisms interact with biotic
and abiotic environment
 Focuses on specific levels of
matter :

 Organisms
 Populations
 Communities
 Ecosystems
 Biosphere
 Biosphere Parts of the earth's air,water, and soil
where life is found

Ecosystem A community of different species

interacting with one another and with
their nonliving environment of matter
and energy
Community Populations of different species
living in a particular place, and
potentially interacting with each
other
Population A group of individuals of the same
species living in a particular place

Organism An individual living being

The fundamental structural and

Cell functional unit of life

Molecule Chemical combination of two or

more atoms of the same or different
Water
elements
Atom Smallest unit of a chemical element
that exhibits its chemical properties
Hydrogen Oxygen
Biosphere Parts of the earth's air,water, and soil
where life is found

Ecosystem A community of different species

interacting with one another and with
their nonliving environment of matter
and energy
Community Populations of different species
living in a particular place, and
potentially interacting with each
other
Population A group of individuals of the same
species living in a particular place

Organism An individual living being

The fundamental structural and

Cell functional unit of life

Molecule Chemical combination of two or

more atoms of the same or different
elements

Atom Smallest unit of a chemical element

that exhibits its chemical properties
Living and Nonliving
Components
 Abiotic
Water
Air
Nutrients
Solarenergy
Rocks
Heat
Living and Nonliving
Components
Biotic
Plants
Animals
Microbes
Dead organisms
Waste products of dead
organisms
 Oxygen (O2)
Precipitation

Carbon dioxide (CO2)

Producer

Secondary
consumer
(fox)
Primary
consumer
(rabbit)

Producers

Water Decomposers

Soluble mineral
nutrients
Trophic Levels (1)

 Producers – autotrophs
Photosynthesis
 Consumers –
heterotrophs
Primary - herbivores
Secondary - carnivores
Third-level
 Omnivores
Trophic Levels (2)

Decomposers
Release nutrients from
the dead bodies of plants
and animals
Detrivores
Feed on the waste or
dead bodies of organisms
 Detritus feeders Decomposers

Carpenter
Termite and
Bark beetle ant galleries carpenter
engraving ant work Dry rot
Long-horned
beetle holes fungus

Wood
reduced Mushroom
to powder

Time
progression Powder broken down by
decomposers into plant
nutrients in soil
Production and
Consumption of Energy
 Photosynthesis
 Carbon dioxide + water +
solar energy glucose +
oxygen
 Aerobic respiration
 Glucose+ oxygen  carbon
dioxide + water + energy
Energy Flow and Nutrient
Recycling
Ecosystems sustained
through:
One-way energy flow from
the sun
Nutrient recycling
 Solar
Abiotic chemicals energy
Heat (carbon dioxide,
oxygen, nitrogen,
minerals)

Heat Heat

Decomposers Producers
(bacteria, fungi) (plants)

Consumers
(herbivores,
Heat carnivores) Heat
Science Focus: Invisible
Organisms (1)
Microorganisms/
Microbes
Bacteria
Protozoa
Fungi
Phytoplankton
Science Focus: Invisible
Organisms (2)
 Microbes can cause disease
Malaria
Athlete’s foot
 Microbes are also beneficial
Intestinalflora
Purify water
Phytoplankton remove carbon
dioxide from the atmosphere
3-3 What Happens to Energy in an
Ecosystem?

 Concept 3-3 As energy

flows through ecosystems in
food chains and webs, the
amount of chemical energy
available to organisms at
each succeeding feeding
level decreases.
Energy Flow in
Ecosystems
 Trophiclevels
 Food chain
 Sequence of organisms, each of
which serves as a source of food
for the next
 Food web
 Network of interconnected food
chains
 More complex than a food chain
 First Trophic Second Trophic Third Trophic Fourth Trophic
Level Level Level Level
Producers Primary Secondary Tertiary
(plants) consumers consumers consumers
(herbivores) (carnivores) (top carnivores)
Heat Heat Heat Heat

Solar
energy

Heat

Heat Heat

Decomposers and detritus feeders

 Humans

Blue whale Sperm whale

Elephant
seal
Crabeater
seal Killer
whale

Leopard
seal
Adelie Emperor
penguin penguin

Squid
Petrel

Fish

Carnivorous
plankton

Krill Herbivorous
zooplankton

Phytoplankton
 Climate
change

Condensation Ice and Condensation

snow

Precipitation Transpiration Evaporation Evaporation

to land from plants from land from ocean

Surface runoff Increased Precipitation

Runoff flooding to ocean
from wetland
destruction
Lakes and Reduced recharge of
reservoirs aquifers and flooding
from covering land Point
with crops and source
Infiltration buildings pollution
and percolation
into aquifer
Surface
runoff
Groundwater Ocean
movement (slow) Aquifer
depletion from
overpumping
Processes
Processes affected by humans
Reservoir
Pathway affected by humans
Natural pathway
 Carbon dioxide
in atmosphere

Respiration

Photosynthesis
Burning
Forest fires fossil fuels
Diffusion Animals
(consumers)

Deforestation
Plants Carbon
Transportation Respiration (producers) in plants
(producers)
Carbon
in animals
Carbon dioxide
(consumers)
dissolved in ocean
Decomposition Carbon
Marine food webs in fossil
Producers, consumers, fuels
decomposers

Carbon
in limestone or Compaction
dolomite sediments
Processes
Reservoir
Pathway affected by humans
Natural pathway
 Processes
Nitrogen
Reservoir in atmosphere
Pathway affected by humans
Natural pathway
Denitrification
Electrical by bacteria
storms Nitrogen
Nitrogen oxides in animals
from burning fuel Volcanic (consumers)
activity
Nitrification
by bacteria

Nitrogen
in plants
Nitrates (producers)
from fertilizer
runoff and
decomposition Decomposition Uptake by plants

Nitrate
in soil

Nitrogen Nitrogen
loss to deep in ocean Bacteria
ocean sediments sediments Ammonia
in soil
Phosphorus Cycle

 Does not cycle through the

atmosphere
 Obtained from terrestrial
rock formations
 Limiting factor on land and
in freshwater ecosystems
 Biologically important for
producers and consumers
Processes
Reservoir
Pathway affected by humans
Natural pathway
Phosphates Phosphates
in sewage in fertilizer Plate
Phosphates tectonics
in mining waste Runoff Runoff

Sea
birds
Runoff Phosphate
in rock
Erosion
(fossil bones,
guano) Ocean
Animals food chain
(consumers)
Phosphate Phosphate
dissolved in in shallow
water ocean sediments
Phosphate
in deep
Plants ocean
(producers) sediments

Bacteria
 Sulfur dioxide
in atmosphere
Sulfuric acid
and Sulfate
deposited as
acid rain

Burning Refining
Smelting
coal fossil fuels
Sulfur
Dimethyl in animals
sulfide (consumers)
a bacteria
byproduct

Sulfur
in plants
(producers)
Mining and Uptake
extraction Decay by plants
Sulfur
in ocean Decay
sediments

Processes Sulfur
in soil, rock
Reservoir
and fossil fuels
Pathway affected by humans
Natural pathway
Animation: Levels of
organization
Animation: Linked
Processes
Animation: Feedback Control of
Temperature
Animation: Diet of a Red
Fox
Animation: Prairie Trophic
Levels
Animation: Rainforest
Food Web
Animation: Energy Flow in
Silver Springs
Animation: Biomes Map
Animation: Prairie Food
Web
Animation: Gause’s
Competition
Experiment
Animation: Visible Light
Animation: Energy Flow
Animation: Roles of Organisms in an
Ecosystem
Animation: Matter
Recycling and Energy Flow
Animation: Current and
Projected Population Sizes by
Region
Animation: Demographic Transition
Model
Animation: Soil Profile
Animation: Species
Diversity By Latitude
Animation: Area and
Distance Effects
Animation: Linked
Processes
Animation: Categories of
Food Webs
Animation: Hydrologic
Cycle
Animation: Carbon Cycle
Animation: Nitrogen Cycle
Animation: Phosphorous
Cycle
Animation: Sulfur Cycle
Animation: Capture-
Recapture Method
Video: Owl with Mouse
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