Ecosystems

1
Ecosystems
2
Ecosystems

• Ecosystem all the organisms that live in a
  particular place, AND their nonliving and living
  environment

• Ecosystems are made and shaped by both living
  (biotic) and nonliving things (abiotic)

3
Biotic Factors

• Abiotic Factors

• The physical, or nonliving, factors that shape an
  ecosystem.
• moisture
• temperature
• wind
• sunlight
• soil

• The living influences on an organism.
• plants
• animals
• fungi
• bacteria

Biotic and abiotic factors determine survival and
growth of an organism and productivity of the
ecosystem in which the organism lives.
4
Sunlight
Plants
moisture
sand
5
Energy in an Ecosystem Life in an ecosystem
requires a source of energy

• Producers organisms that make their own food
  from the sun or inorganic chemical compounds
• Provide energy for other organisms in an
  ecosystem

This image uses chlorophyll abundance to show the
distribution of producers
6
Producers

• Producers are called Autotrophs
• auto self
• troph feeder
• Photoautotroph Autotrophs who use energy from
  the sun (through photosynthesis) to make their
  food
• Chemoautotroph Autotrophs who use energy from
  inorganic chemical compounds to make their food

7

• Chemosynthesis is the process by which organisms
  form carbs using chemicals, rather than use
  light, as an energy source.This is found in
  sulfur rich salt marsh flats and in hydrothermal
  pools in Yellowstone National Park.

8
Consumers

• Consumers organisms that get energy by eating
  other living or once-living resources.
• Heterotrophs
• Hetero other
• troph feeder

9

• There are different types of heterotrophs based
  on what they eat.

• Herbivores eat plants.
• Carnivores eat animals.
• Omnivores eat both plants and animals.
• Detritivores eat detritus (dead organic matter)
• ex. millipede
• Decomposers are detritivores that break down
  organic matter into simpler compounds. This is
  important to an ecosystem b/c it returns vital
  nutrients back into the environment.
• Ex. fungi

ominvore
detritivore
10
Feeding Relationships

• Food Chain series of steps in which organisms
  transfer energy by eating and being eaten.
• Food chains follow the connection between one
  producer and a single chain of consumers in an
  ecosystem

11
Feeding Relationships
Energy flows through an ecosystem in one
direction, from the sun or inorganic compounds to
autotrophs (producers) and then to various
heterotrophs (consumers).
12

• Each step in a food chain is called a trophic
  level.
• Trophic levels are the nourishment levels in a
  food chain.
• Primary consumers are herbivores that eat
  producers.
• Secondary consumers are carnivores that eat
  herbivores.
• Tertiary consumers are carnivores that eat
  secondary consumers.
• Omnivores, such as humans that eat both plants
  and animals, may be listed at different trophic
  levels in different food chains.

13
Energy Transfer

• Only 10 of energy is transferred from one
  trophic level to the next
• WHY?
• Because organisms use much of the energy they
  consume for life processes (respiration,
  movement, reproduction)

14
Energy Transfer

• The amount of energy available at each trophic
  level can be identified using an energy pyramid

.1
1
10
100
15

• A food web shows a complex network of feeding
  relationships.
• Emphasizes complicated feeding relationships and
  energy flow in an ecosystem.
• An organism may have multiple feeding
  relationships in an ecosystem.

Tertiary consumers
Secondary consumers
Primary consumers
Producers
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)