ECOSYSTEM

1. An ecosystem can be visualised as a functional unit of nature, where living organisms interact
among themselves and also with the surrounding physical environment.
2. it is convenient to divide it into two basic categories, namely the terrestrial and the aquatic.
3. Interaction of biotic and abiotic components result in a physical structure that is characteristic
for each type of ecosystem.
4. Identification and enumeration of plant and animal species of an ecosystem gives its species
composition.
5. Vertical distribution of different species occupying different levels is called stratification.
6. The components of the ecosystem are seen to function as a unit when you consider the following
aspects:(i) Productivity; (ii) Decomposition;(iii) Energy flow; and (iv) Nutrientcycling.
7. The solar input, the cycle of temperature, day-length and other climatic conditions regulate the
rate of function of the entire pond.
8. The autotrophic components include the phytoplankton, some algae and the floating, submerged
and marginal plants found at the edges.
9. The consumers are represented by the zooplankton, the free swimming and bottom dwelling
forms.
10. The decomposers are the fungi, bacteria and flagellates especially abundant in the bottom of
the pond.
11. This system performs all the functions of any ecosystem and of the biosphere as a whole.
12. There is unidirectional movement of energy towards the higher trophic levels and its dissipation
and loss as heat to the environment.
13. A constant input of solar energy is the basic requirement for any ecosystem to function and
sustain.
14. Primary production is defined as the amount of biomass or organic matter produced per unit
area over a time period by plants during photosynthesis.
15. It is expressed in terms of weight (g m–2) or energy (kcal m–2). The rate of biomass production
is called productivity.
16. It is expressed in terms of gm–2 yr–1 or (kcal m–2) yr–1 to compare the productivity of
different ecosystems.
17. It can be divided into gross primary productivity (GPP) and net primary productivity (NPP).
18. Gross primary productivity of an ecosystem is the rate of production of organic matter during
photosynthesis.
19. A considerable amount of GPP is utilised by plants in respiration. Gross primary productivity
minus respiration losses (R), is the net primary productivity (NPP).
20. GPP – R = NPP
21. Net primary productivity is the available biomass for the consumption to heterotrophs
(herbiviores and decomposers).
22. Secondary productivity is defined as the rate of formation of new organic matter by consumers.
23. The annual net primary productivity of the whole biosphere is approximately 170 billion tons
(dry weight) of organic matter.
24. Of this, despite occupying about 70 per cent of the surface, the productivity of the oceans are
only 55 billion tons. Rest of course, is on land.
25. Earthworm help in the breakdown of complex organic matter as well as in loosening of the soil.
26. Similarly, decomposers break down complex organic matter into inorganic substances like carbon
dioxide, water and nutrients and the process is called decomposition.
27. Dead plant remains such as leaves, bark, flowers and dead remains of animals, including fecal
matter, constitute detritus, which is the raw material for decomposition.
28. The important steps in the process of decomposition are fragmentation, leaching, catabolism,
humification and mineralisation.
29. Detritivores (e.g., earthworm) break down detritus into smaller particles. This process is called
fragmentation.
30. By the process of leaching, water- soluble inorganic nutrients go down into the soil horizon and
get precipitated as unavailable salts.
31. Bacterial and fungal enzymes degrade detritus into simpler inorganic substances. This process is
called as catabolism.
32. Humification and mineralisation occur during decomposition in the soil.
33. Humification leads to accumulation of a dark coloured amorphous substance called humus that is
highly resistant to microbial action and undergoes decomposition at an extremely slow rate.
34. The humus is further degraded by some microbes and release of inorganic nutrients occur by
the process known as mineralisation.
35. Decomposition is largely an oxygen-requiring process.
36. The rate of decomposition is controlled by chemical composition of detritus and climatic
factors.
37. In a particular climatic condition, decomposition rate is slower if detritus is rich in lignin and
chitin, and quicker, if detritus is rich in nitrogen and water-soluble substances like sugars.
38. Temperature and soil moisture are the most important climatic factors that regulate
decomposition through their effects on the activities of soil microbes.
39. Except for the deep sea hydro-thermal ecosystem, sun is the only source of energy for all
ecosystems on Earth.
40. Of the incident solar radiation less than 50 per cent of it is photosynthetically active radiation
(PAR).
41. We know that plants and photosynthetic bacteria (autotrophs), fix Sun’s radiant energy to make
food from simple inorganic materials.
42. Plants capture only 2-10 per cent of the PAR and this small amount of energy sustains the entire
living world.
43. All organisms are dependent for their food on producers, either directly or indirectly.
44. So you find unidirectional flow of energy from the sun to producers and then to consumers.
45. Further, ecosystems are not exempt from the Second Law of thermodynamics.
46. They need a constant supply of energy to synthesise the molecules they require, to counteract
the universal tendency toward increasing disorderliness.
47. The green plant in the ecosystem are called producers. In a terrestrial ecosystem, major
producers are herbaceous and woody plants.
48. The chain or web is formed because of this interdependency. No energy that is trapped into an
organism remains in it for ever.
49. The energy trapped by the producer, hence, is either passed on to a consumer or the organism
dies.
50. Death of organism is the beginning of the detritus food chain/web.
51. All animals depend on plants (directly or indirectly) for their food needs.
52. They are hence called consumers and also heterotrophs. If they feed on the producers, the
plants, they are called primary consumers.
53. Obviously the primary consumers will be herbivores. Some common herbivores are insects, birds
and mammals in terrestrial ecosystem and molluscs in aquatic ecosystem.
54. The consumers that feed on these herbivores are carnivores, or more correctly primary
carnivores (though secondary consumers).
55. Those animals that depend on the primary carnivores for food are labelled secondary
carnivores.
56. detritus food chain (DFC) begins with dead organic matter. It is made up of decomposers which
are heterotrophic organisms, mainly fungi and bacteria.
57. They meet their energy and nutrient requirements by degrading dead organic matter or
detritus. These are also known as saprotrophs
58. Decomposers secrete digestive enzymes that breakdown dead and waste materials into simple,
inorganic materials, which are subsequently absorbed by them.
59. In an aquatic ecosystem, GFC is the major conduit for energy flow.
60. Detritus food chain may be connected with the grazing food chain at some levels.
61. These natural interconnection of food chains make it a food web
62. Based on the source of their nutrition or food, organisms occupy a specific place in the food
chain that is known as their trophic level.
63. Producers belong to the first trophic level, herbivores (primary consumer) to the second and
carnivores (secondary consumer) to the third.
64. When any organism dies it is converted to detritus or dead biomass that serves as an energy
source for decomposers.
65. Each trophic level has a certain mass of living material at a particular time called as the
standing crop.
66. The standing crop is measured as the mass of living organisms (biomass) or the number in a unit
area.
67. The biomass of a species is expressed in terms of fresh or dry weight.
68. The number of trophic levels in the grazing food chain is restricted as the transfer of energy
follows 10 per cent law – only 10 per cent of the energy is transferred to each trophic level from
the lower trophic level.
69. The base of a pyramid is broad and it narrows towards the apex.
70. One gets a similar shape, whether you express the food or energy relationship between
organisms at different trophic levels.
71. This, relationship is expressed in terms of number, biomass or energy. The base of each pyramid
represents the producers or the first trophic level while the apex represents tertiary or top level
consumer.

72. The three types of ecological pyramids that are usually studied are (a) pyramid of number; (b)
pyramid of biomass and (c) pyramid
73. Any calculations of energy content, biomass or numbers, has to include all organisms at that
trophic level.
74. One must remember that the trophic level represents a functional level, not a species as such.
75. A given species may occupy more than one trophic level in the same ecosystem at the same time
76. In most ecosystems, all the pyramids, of number, of energy and biomass are upright, i.e.,
producers are more in number and biomass than the herbivores, and herbivores are more in number
and biomass than the carnivores.
77. Also energy at a lower trophic level is always more than at a higher level.
78. The pyramid of biomass in sea is generally inverted because the biomass of fishes far exceeds
that of phytoplankton.
79. Pyramid of energy is always upright, can never be inverted, because when energy flows from a
particular trophic level to the next trophic level, some energy is always lost as heat at each step.
80. assumes a simple food chain, something that almost never exists in nature; it does not
accommodate a food web.
81. there are certain limitations of ecological pyramids such as it does not take into account the
same species belonging to two or more trophic levels.
82. Moreover, saprophytes are not given any place in ecological pyramids even though they play a
vital role in the ecosystem.
83. The amount of nutrients, such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, etc., present in the soil
at any given time, is referred to as the standing state.
84. The movement of nutrient elements through the various components of an ecosystem is called
nutrient cycling.
85. Another name of nutrient cycling is biogeochemical cycles (bio: living organism, geo: rocks, air,
water). Nutrient cycles are of two types: (a) gaseous and (b) sedimentary.
86. The reservoir for gaseous type of nutrient cycle (e.g., nitrogen, carbon cycle) exists in the
atmosphere and for the sedimentary cycle (e.g., sulphur and phosphorus cycle), the reservoir is
located in Earth’s crust.
87. Environmental factors, e.g., soil, moisture, pH, temperature, etc., regulate the rate of release
of nutrients into the atmosphere.
88. The function of the reservoir is to meet with the deficit which occurs due to imbalance in the
rate of influx and efflux.
89. Carbon constitutes 49 per cent of dry weight of organisms and is next only to water.
90. If we look at the total quantity of global carbon, we find that 71 per cent carbon is found
dissolved in oceans.
91. This oceanic reservoir regulates the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere
92. According to one estimate 4 × 1013 kg of carbon is fixed annually in the biosphere through
photosynthesis.
93. Some amount of the fixed carbon is lost to sediments and removed from circulation.
94. The natural reservoir of phosphorus is rock, which contains phosphorus in the form of
phosphates.
95. When rocks are weathered, minute amounts of these phosphates dissolve in soil solution and are
absorbed by the roots of the plants
96. Herbivores and other animals obtain this element from plants.
97. The waste products and the dead organisms are decomposed by phosphate-solubilising bacteria
releasing phosphorus.
98. Unlike carbon cycle, there is no respiratory release of phosphorus into atmosphere.
99. The other two major and important differences between carbon and phosphorus cycle are
100. firstly, atmospheric inputs of phosphorus through rainfall are much smaller than carbon inputs,
and,
101. secondly, gaseous exchanges of phosphorus between organism and environment are negligible.
102. Healthy ecosystems are the base for a wide range of economic, environmental and aesthetic
goods and services.
103. The products of ecosystem processes are named as ecosystem services,
104. Robert Constanza and his colleagues have very recently tried to put price tags on nature’s life-
support services.
105. Researchers have put an average price tag of US $ 33 trillion a year on these fundamental
ecosystems services,
106. This is nearly twice the value of the global gross national product GNP which is (US $ 18
trillion).
107. Out of the total cost of various ecosystem services, the soil formation accounts for about 50
per cent, and contributions of other services like recreation and nutrient cycling, are less than 10
per cent each.
108. The cost of climate regulation and habitat for wildlife are about 6 per cent each