Lesson 3

Ecosystem
 At the end of this lesson,
students will be able to:

1. Define ecosystem.

2.Differentiate biotic and

abiotic components of the
environment.

Learning 3. Know the aspects, division,

Objectives structure and function of
ecosystem.

4.State the general

characteristics of ecosystem

5. Differentiate food chain and

food web
 INTRODUCTION
No life exists in a vacuum. Materials and forces
which constitutes its environment and from which it
must derive its needs surround every living
organism. Thus, for its survival, a plant, an animal, or
a microbe cannot remain completely aloof in a shell.
Instead, it requires from its environment a supply of
energy, a supply of materials, and a removal of
waste products.

For various basic requirements, each living organism

has to depend and also to interact with different
nonliving or abiotic and living or biotic components
or the environment.
It is important to understand that ecosystems
are open systems, hence they are not self-
sustaining: they require an energy input (as from
the sun), and often a nutrient input (as from
minerals carried by erosion into a lake); because
energy cannot be recycled, all ecosystems have
energy output, most often as low-grade heat lost
to the environment during each energy transfer
between organisms; although nutrients typically
are recycled, the process is not 100% efficient,
and some loss occurs from the system (as
though soil leaching), so there also is a nutrient
output.
 1. Abiotic
 The abiotic environmental components include
basic inorganic elements and compounds such
as water and carbon dioxide, calcium and
oxygen, carbonates and phosphates besides
such physical factors as soil, rainfall,
temperature, moisture, winds, currents, and
solar radiation with its concomitants of light
and heat.
 2. Biotic
 The biotic environmental factors comprise
plants, animals, and microbes; They interact in
a fundamentally energy-dependent fashion. In
the words of Helena Curtis “The scientific study
of the interactions of organisms with their
physical environment and with each other, is
called ecology”. According to Herreid II “It
mainly concerns with the directive influences of
abiotic and biotic environmental factors over
the growth, distribution behavior and survival
of organisms.
 Ecosystem
 The terms ecosystem is most preferred, where ‘eco’ implies the
environment, and ‘system’ implies an interacting, inter-dependent
complex. In this way, it can be said that any unit that includes all
the organisms i.e. the communities in a given area, interact with
the physical environment so that a flow of energy leads to clearly
defined trophic structure, biotic diversity and material cycle (i.e.
exchange of materials between living and non-living components)
within the system, is known as an ecological system or ecosystem.

 Ecosystem may be visualized as 3-dimensional cutouts from the

ecosphere. All primary and secondary producers composing the
ecosystem are its essential elements. The unique feature of eco-
systems is the maintenance of their chemical state and of their
environment.
Thus, an ecosystem is an integrated unit, consisting of
interacting plants and animals whose survival depends
upon the maintenance of abiotic i.e. physicochemical
environment and gradients such as moisture, wind and
solar radiation with its concomitants of light and heat,
as well as biotic structures and functions. The
integrated unit may or may not be isolated but it must
have definable limits within which there are integrated
functions. The physiologists study various functions in
individual plants or animals, but the ecologists study
them at the eco-system level. A real ecologist
endeavors for maintaining holistic or ecosystem
perspective of the process being studied by him.
ASPECTS OF ECOSYSTEM

 The eco-system can be defined as any

spatial or organizational unit including
living organisms and non-living
substances interacting to produce an
exchange of materials between the
living and non-living parts. The eco-
system can be studied from either
structural or functional aspects.
 1. Structural Aspect
 Thestructural aspects of ecosystem include a
description of the arrangement, types and
numbers of species and their life histories,
along with a description of the physical
features of the environment.
2. Functional

 The functional aspects of the ecosystem

include the flow of energy and the
cycling of nutrients.
 Habitat
 The non-living part of the ecosystem includes
different kinds of habitats such as air, water
and land, and a variety of abiotic factors.
Habitat can be defined as the natural abode or
locality of an animal, plant or person. It includes
all features of the environment in a given
locality. Each of these categories may be
subdivided into smaller unit, such a freshwater
habitat may exist as a large lake, a pond, a
puddle, a river or a stream.
 The land is used as a habitat for numerous
terrestrial organisms. It includes many major
categories of landmasses, which are called
biomes. Biomes are distinct large areas of
earth inclusive of flora and fauna, e.g. deserts,
prairie, tropical forests, etc. Soil is also used as
a habitat by a variety of microbes, plants and
animals.
 Abiotic Factors
Among the main abiotic factors of the
ecosystem are included the following:

 The climatic factors as solar radiation,

temperature, wind, water currents, rainfall.
 The physical factors as light, fire, pressure,
geomagnetism,
 Chemical factors as acidity, salinity and the
availability of inorganic nutrients needed by
plants.
 Biotic or Biological Factors
The biological (biotic) factors of ecosystem
include all the living organisms-plants, animals,
bacteria and viruses. Each kind of living
organism found in an ecosystem is given the
name a species. A species includes individuals
which have the following features:

 They are genetically alike.

 They are capable of freely inter-breeding and
producing fertile offspring.
 Relationships
In an ecosystem, there exist various relationships between
species. The relationship may be as under:

(1) Effects
Two species may have any of the following kind of
effects:
 They may have a negative effect upon one another
(competition).
 They may have a neutral effect (neutralism).
 They may have beneficial effect (protoco-operation and
mutualism).

(2) Other kinds of Relationship

 The species may aggregate, or separate, or show a random
relationship to one another.
 Population
A population is a group of inter-acting
individuals, usually of the same species, in a
definable space. In this way we can speak of
population of deer on an island, and the
population of fishes in a pond. A balance
between two aspects determines the size of a
population of any given species:

 Its reproductive potential,

 Its environmental resistance.
 In this way population size is determined
by the relative number of organisms added to or
removed from the group as under:

Addition
 Recruitment into the population is a function
of birth rate and immigration rate.

Removal
 Loss from the population is a function of death
rate and emigration.
 Factors Regulating Population

Following factors does population regulation:

 Physical attributes of the environment (e.g.

climate),
 Food (quantity and quality),
 Disease (host-parasite relationships).
 Predation,
 Competition (inter-specific and intra-specific).
An ecosystem contains numerous populations
of different species of plants, animals and
microbes; all of them interact with one another
as a community and with the physical
environment as well. A community or biotic
community, thus, consists of the population of
plants and animals living together in a
particular place.
 Division of Ecosystem
The ecosystem can be divided, from the energetic view point into three
types of organisms: producers, consumers, and reducers. These can be
explained as under:

(1) Producer
 Photosynthetic algae, plants and bacteria are the producers of the
ecosystem; all other organisms depend upon them directly or indirectly
for food.

(2) Consumers
 Consumers are herbivorous, carnivorous, and omnivorous animals; they
eat the organic matter produced by other organisms.

(3) Reducers/Decomposers
 Reducers are heterotrophic organisms like animals; they are fungi and
bacterial that decompose dead organic matter.
 FOOD CHAINS OF FOOD WEB
Species are related by their feeding behavior in
food chains or food webs. There are two basic
types of food chains as under:

 The consumer food chain includes the

sequence of energy flow from producer +
herbivore + carnivore + reducer;
 The detritus food chain bypasses the
consumers, going from producer + reducer.
 Basic Theme of Ecosystems
(1) Relationship
 The first and foremost theme of an ecosystem in that
everything is somehow or other related to everything
else, the relationships include interlocking functioning
of organisms among themselves besides with their
environment. Biocoenosis and bioecocoenois are
roughly equivalent to community and ecosystem
respectively. Biotopes are the physical environment in
which such communities exist. According to Lamotte
(1969), it is this network of multiple interactions that
permits us to define the ecosystem completely. Many
ecologists regard Interdependence as the first basic
theme of ecology. Ecosystem includes interacting and
interdependent components that are open and linked to
each other.
(2) Limitation
 The second basis theme is Limitation which means
that limits are ubiquitous and that no individual or
species goes on growing indefinitely. Various species
control and limit their own growth in response to
overcrowding or other environmental signals and the
total numbers keep pace with the resources available.

(3) Complexity
 Complexity is a third characteristic of any eco-system.
The three-dimensional interactions of the various
constituent elements of an ecosystem are highly
complex and often beyond the comprehension on the
human brain.
 GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF AN
ECOSYSTEM
According to Smith following are the general characteristics of eco-system.

 The ecosystem is a major structural and functional unit of ecology.

 The structure of an eco-system is related to its species diversity; as such the more
complex ecosystem has high species diversity.
 The relative amount of energy required to maintain an ecosystem depends on its
structure. The more complex the structure, the lesser the energy it requires to
maintain itself.
 The function of the ecosystem is related to energy flow in material cycling through
and within the system.
 Ecosystems mature by passing from less complex to more complex states. Early
stages of such succession have an excess of potential energy. Later (mature)
stages have less energy accumulation.
 Both the environment and the energy fixation in any given ecosystem are limited.
They cannot be exceeded in any way without causing serious undesirable effect.
 Alterations in the environments represent selective pressures upon the population
to which it must adjust. Organisms, which fail to adjust to the changed
environment, must vanish.
 Toconclude the ecosystem is an integrated
unit or zone of variable size, it comprises
vegetation, fauna, microbes and the
environment. Most ecosystems process a
well-defined soil, climate, flora and fauna and
their own potential for adaptation, change
and tolerance. The functioning of any
ecosystem involves a series of cycles. These
cycles are driven by energy flow, the energy
being the solar energy.
 STRUCTURE OF ECOSYSTEMS

Meaning of Structure
 By structure of an eco-system we mean as
under.
 The composition of biological community
including species, numbers, biomass, life history
and distribution in space etc.
 The quantity and distribution of the non-living
materials, such as nutrients, water etc.
 Structure of an ecosystem the range, or gradient
of conditions of existence, such as temperature.
 Natural and Function of Structure of
Ecosystem
 The structure of an ecosystem is in fact, a
description of the species of organisms that are
present, including information on their life
histories, population and distribution in space. It
guides us to know who’s who in the ecosystem. It
also includes descriptive information on the non-
living features of ecosystem give us information
about the range of climatic conditions that
prevail in the area. From structural point of view
all ecosystems consist of following two basic
components:
 1. Abiotic Substances (Non-Living
Components)
The Abiotic substances include basic inorganic and organic
compounds of the environment or habitat of the organism.

 Inorganic Components: The inorganic components of

an ecosystem are as under carbon dioxide, water,
nitrogen, calcium, and phosphate. All of these are
involved in matter cycles (biogeochemical cycles).
 Organic Components: The organic components of an
ecosystem are proteins, carbohydrates; lipids and amino
acids, all of these are synthesized by the biota (flora and
fauna) of an ecosystem and are reached to ecosystem as
their wastes, dead remains, etc.
 The climate, temperature, light, soil etc., are other
abiotic components of the eco-system.
 2. Biotic Substances (Living
Components)
This is indeed the trophic structure of any ecosystem, where living organisms are
distinguished on the basis of their nutritional relationships. From this trophic
(nutritional) standpoint, an ecosystem has two components:

Autotrophic Component of Producers: These are the components in which fixation

of light energy use of simple inorganic substances and build up of complex substance
predominate.

 The component is constituted mainly by green plants, including photosynthetic

bacteria.
 To some lesser extent, chemosynthetic microbes also contribute to the build up of
organic matter.
 Members of the autotrophic component are known as eco-system producers
because they capture energy from non-organic sources, especially light, and store
some of the energy in the form of chemical bonds, for the later use.
 Algae of various types are the most important producers of aquatic ecosystems,
although in estuaries and marshes, grasses may be important as producers.
 Terrestrial ecosystems have trees, herbs, grasses, and mosses that contribute with
varying importance to the production of the ecosystems.
Heterotrophic Component or Consumers: These are the components in which utilization;
rearrangement and decomposition of complex materials predominate. The organisms involved
are known as consumers, as they consume autotrophic organisms like bacterial and algae for
their nutrition, the amount of energy that the producers capture, sets the limit on the availability
of energy for the ecosystem. Thus, when a green plant captures a certain amount of energy from
sunlight, it is said to produce the energy for the ecosystem. The consumers are further
categorized as:

 Macroconsumers

 Macroconsumers are the consumers, which in a order as they occur in a food chain are,
herbivores, carnivores (or omnivores).
 Herbivores are also known as primary consumers.
 Secondary and tertiary consumers, if preset, are carnivores of omnivores. They all
phagotrophs that include mainly animals that ingest other organic and particulate organic
matter.

 Microconsumers

 These are popularly known as decomposers. They are saprotrophs (osmotrophs) they include
mainly bacteria, actinomycetes and fungi. They breakdown complex compounds of dead or
living protoplasm, they absorb some of the decomposition or breakdown products. Besides,
they release inorganic nutrients in environment, making them available again to autotrophs.
 The biotic component of any ecosystem may be thought of as the functional kingdom of
nature. The reason is, they are based on the type of nutrition and the energy source used.
The trophic structure of an ecosystem is one kind of producer consumer arrangement, where
each “food” level is known as trophic level.
 FUNCTION OF AN ECOSYSTEM
 For a fuller understanding of ecosystems, a fuller understanding of their
functions besides their structures is essential. The function of
ecosystems includes, the process how an ecosystem works or operates
in normal condition.

 From the operational viewpoint, the living and non-living components of

ecosystem are interwoven into the fabric of nature. Hence their
separation from each other becomes practically very much difficult. The
producers, green plants, fix radiant energy and with the help of minerals
(C, O, N, P, L, Ca, Mg, Zn, Fe etc.) taken from their soil and aerial
environment (nutrient pool) they build up complex prefer to call the
green plants as converters or transducers because in their opinion the
terms ‘producer’ form an energy viewpoint which is somewhat
misleading. They contend that green plants produce carbohydrates and
not energy and since they convert or transducer radiant energy into
chemical form, they must be better called the converters or transducers.
However, the term’ producer’ is so widely used that it is preferred to
retain it as such.
 1. Transformation of Solar Energy into
Food Energy
 The solar radiation is major source of energy in the ecosystem.
It is the basic input of energy entering the ecosystem. The
green plants receive it and is converted into heat energy. It is
lost from the ecosystem to the atmosphere through plant
communities. It is only a small proportion of radiant solar
energy that is used by plant to make food through the process
of photosynthesis. Green plants transform a part of solar
energy into food energy or chemical energy. The green plants
to develop their tissues use this energy. It is stored in the
primary producers at the bottom of trophic levels. The
chemical energy, which is stored at rapid level one, becomes
the source of energy to the herbivorous animals at trophic level
two of the food chain. Some portion energy is lost from trophic
level one through respiration and some portion is transferred to
plant-eating animals at trophic level two.
 2. The Circulation of elements through
Energy Flow
 Itis seen that in the various biotic components
of the ecosystem the energy flow is the main
driving force of nutrient circulation. The
organic and inorganic substances are moved
reversibly through various closed system of
cycles in the biosphere, atmosphere,
hydrosphere and lithosphere. This activity is
done in such a way that total mass of these
substances remains almost the same and is
always available to biotic communities.
 3. The Conversion of Elements into
Inorganic Flow
The organic elements of plants and animals are released in the under
mentioned ways:

 Decomposition of leaf falls from the plants dead plants and

animals by decomposers and their conversion into soluble
inorganic form.
 Burning of vegetation by lighting, accidental forest fire or
deliberate action of man. When burnt, the portions of organic
matter are released to the atmosphere and these again fall down,
under the impact of precipitation, on the ground. Then they
become soluble inorganic form of element to join soil storage,
some portions in the form of ashes are decomposed by bacterial
activities.
 The waste materials released by animals are decomposed by
bacteria. They find their way in soluble inorganic form to soil
storage.
 4. The Growth and Development of
Plants
 In the biogeochemical cycles are included the
uptake of nutrients of inorganic elements by the
plants through their roots. The nutrients are derived
from the soil where these inorganic elements are
stored. The decomposition of leaves, plants and
animals and their conversion into soluble inorganic
form are stored into soil contributing to the growth
and development of plants. Decompositions are
converged into some elements. These elements are
easily used in development of plant tissues and
plant growth by biochemical processes, mainly
photosynthesis.
 5. Productivity of ecosystem

 Theproductivity of an ecosystem refers to the

rate of production i.e. the amount of organic
matter, which is accumulated in any unit time.
 DECOMPOSERS
 In the absence of decomposers, no ecosystem could function long. In their
absence, dead organisms would pile up without rotting, as would waste products,
it would not be long before and an essential element, phosphorus, for example,
would be first in short supply and then gone altogether, the reason is the dead
corpses littering the landscape would be hoarding the entire supply. The
decomposers tear apart organisms and in their metabolic processes release to the
environment atoms and molecules that can be reused again by autotrophic point
of view. Instead they are important from the material (nutrient) point of view.
Energy cannot be recycled, but matter can be. Hence it is necessary to feed
Energy into ecosystem to keep up with the dissipation of heat or the increase in
entropy. Matter must be recycled again and again by an ecological process called
biogeochemical cycle.

 In this world all living organisms require a constant supply of nutrients for growth.
The death and decomposition of plants and animals, with release of nutrients
constitutes an essential link in the maintenance of nutrient cycles. When an
organism dies, an initial period of rapid leaching takes place and populations of
macromolecules. The dead organism is disintegrated beyond recognition. Enzymic
action breaks down the disintegrating parts of the litter. Animals invade and either
eat the rapidly recolonized by micro- organisms, and the litter biomass decreases.
It becomes simpler in structure and chemical composition.
 Process of Decomposition
The process of decomposition involves three interrelated components:

 1. Leaching: Leaching is a physical phenomenon operating soon-

after litter fall. Soluble matter is removed from detritus by the action
of water. Sometime over 20% of the total nitrogen content of litter
maybe leached off.

 2. Catabolism: The process in a plant or animal by which living

tissue is changed into waste products.

 3. Comminution: Comminution to make small to reduce to power or

minute particles. Comminution means the reduction in particle size of
detritus. During the course of feeding, the decomposer animals
community detritus physically. And utilize the energy and nutrients
for their own growth (secondary production). In due course, the
decomposers themselves die and contribute to the detritus.
 Function of Decomposition
The two major functions of decomposition within
ecosystems are as under:

 The mineralization of essential elements,

 The formation of soil organic matter to inorganic
form.

* The formation of soil organic matter in nature is a

slow process. The decomposition of any piece of
plant detritus may take hundreds of years to
complete. However, some residues of decomposition
within this period do contribute to the formation of
soil organic matter.