ECOLOGICAL PYRAMID, ENERGY AND BIOLOGICAL MAGNIFICATION NOTES

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ECOLOGICAL PYRAMID, ENERGY AND BIOLOGICAL
MAGNIFICATION NOTES
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ENERGY

• The ability to do work transfer heat
• Some Different Forms of Energy
• 1. Kinetic Energy moving energy
• 2. Heat kinetic energy of molecules atoms
• 3. Electricity movement of charged particles
• 4. Chemical Energy energy stored in bonds of
  molecules
• 5. Gravitational Potential Energy energy
  stored by an object that can fall

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Energy

• All energy used in biological systems originally
  comes from the sun
• The amount of energy gained by producers is
  defined as 100 of the energy available to
  biological systems and is stored as chemical
  energy

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Law of Conservation of Energy

• Energy cannot be created or destroyed!!
• When a consumer eats a producer, the chemical
  bonds in the producers molecules are broken and
  new molecules are made in the consumer which
  releases energy (this is the energy used by the
  consumer)

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Mass

• In no part of the food chain process is any
  matter destroyed (no atoms disappear)
• So mass is also conserved Law of Conservation
  of Mass
• Mass can be neither created or destroyed

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BIOMASS

• Total mass (amount of living tissue) of all the
  organisms within a given trophic level

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Only a small fraction of the biomass from one
trophic level moves to the next

• 2 Reasons for this
• Many organisms are not consumed by organisms at
  the next trophic level energy is not available
  for transfer
• Some of the biomass at each level consists of
  materials consumers wont eat bones, teeth,
  beaks, claws, shells, wood

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ECOLOGICAL PYRAMID

• Shows the relationships between producers and
  consumers at the trophic levels in an ecosystem

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WHY A PYRAMID SHAPE?

• In most food chains fewer organisms occupy each
  higher trophic level (lots of producers, many
  primary consumers, fewer secondary consumers and
  very few tertiary consumers)

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Energy in a Trophic Pyramid

• The energy the producers gained from the sun has
  2 directions it can go
• 1. up to the next trophic level
• 2. released as heat
• 10 of the energy is consumed by the next trophic
  level and the rest (90) is released into the
  environment as heat
• Notice this adds up to 100 because of the Law of
  Conservation of Energy

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Energy in a Trophic Pyramid, cont.

• The same is true for primary consumers the
  energy that primary consumers gained from the
  producers has 2 directions it can go
• 1. up to the next trophic level
• 2. released as heat
• 10 goes to the next trophic level and 90 is
  released as heat, which again adds up to 100,
  keeping in line with the Law of Conservation of
  Energy

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10 PERCENT LAW

• Energy available at each trophic level is about
  1/10 the energy available from the level below

.1
20
1
200
2,000
10
100
20,000
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Heat

• As said earlier, much of the energy from one
  level to the other on a pyramid is released as
  heat
• Heat can move from one place to another in only 3
  ways
• 1. Conduction
• 2. Convection
• 3. Radiation

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Heat, cont.

• Conduction when two objects come into physical
  contact and heat is transferred (ex. Touching the
  stove)
• Convection when heat moves through a fluid
  (liquid or gas) because hot fluids rise and cold
  fluids sink (ex. Holding your hand above the
  stove and getting hot)
• Radiation when heat is transferred by
  electromagnetic energy (like light and infrared)
  the radiation causes the molecules to start
  moving (ex. You get hot while outside because
  the suns radiation heats you up)

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BIOLOGICAL MAGNIFICATION

• The buildup of a pollutant in organisms at higher
  tropic levels in a food chain
• The concentration of a pollutant (like DDT)
  multiplies as it passes up the food chain from
  producers to consumers, so the amount of DDT in
  top-level consumers can be magnified nearly 10
  million times

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