Ecosystems

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Ecosystems
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Questions for Today

• What are the major components of an Ecosystem?
• How do abiotic factors affect Ecosystems?
• How do biotic factors affect Ecosystems?
• Describe the Energy flow and nutrient cycling in
  Ecosystems.

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Ecosystems have Living and Nonliving Components

• An Ecosystem is a community of different species
  interacting with one another and with their
  nonliving environment of matter and energy.
• Two components
• Abiotic nonliving components
• Biotic Living components

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Ecosystems have Living and Nonliving Components

• Each population in an ecosystem has a range of
  tolerance to variations in its physical and
  chemical environments.

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How do Abiotic Factors affect Ecosystems?

• Abiotic Factors affect Ecosystem through limiting
  factors.
• Limiting factors are any abiotic factor that
  affects the number of organisms in a population.
• Limiting Factor Principle states
• Too much or too little of any abiotic factor can
  limit or prevent growth of a population, even if
  all other factors are at or near the optimal
  range of toletance.

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Limiting Factors

• On land, the major limiting factors are
• Precipitation
• Soil Nutrients
• Temperature
• In aquatic life zones, the major limiting factors
  are
• Temperature
• Nutrient Availability
• Sunlight
• Dissolved Oxygen
• Salinity
• pH

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Living Components of an Ecosystem

• All living organisms are assigned a trophic level
  or feeding level.
• The first trophic level are the producers.
• Producers are autotrophs that make their own food
  through the use of photosynthesis or
  chemosynthesis
• On land, producers are usually green land plants
  that capture 1 of the suns energy.

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Living Components of Ecosystems

• In aquatic lifezones, the major producers are
  algae and phytoplankton.
• Photosynthesis uses light to make glucose
• Chemosynthesis may use inorganic compounds to
  create organic compounds.
• Found near hydrothermal vents.

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Living Components of Ecosystems

• Consumers eat producers and other consumers.
• Consumers are heterotrophs
• Several types of consumers
• Primary Consumers (Herbivores)
• Secondary Consumers (Carnivores)
• Tertiary and Higher Consumers (Large Carnivores)
• Omnivores
• Decomposers
• Detritus Feeders

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Living Components of Ecosystems

• In order to obtain the energy from the sun,
  consumers breakdown the bonds in organic
  compounds using cellular respiration.
• Two types
• Aerobic and anaerobic.
• All organisms, plant and animal, carry out
  respiration. Only plants carry out
  photosynthesis.

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Energy Flow and Nutrient Cycling

• Ecosystems are sustained through a combination of
  one-way energy flow, nutrient cycling.
• Decomposers and Detritus Feeders are essential in
  environments because they can cycle nutrients
  back into the soil and help producers to grow.

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