Ciclos Biogeoquímicos y Cadenas Tróficas

Ciclos Biogeoquímicos

• Biogeochemical cycles are the continuous flows of elements like carbon, nitrogen, and water between the living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) parts of the environment.
• These cycles are essential for life because they continuously recycle essential nutrients.
• The water cycle involves evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and collection, moving water through the atmosphere and on Earth's surface.
• The carbon cycle involves the movement of carbon through the atmosphere, oceans, and living organisms. Photosynthesis and respiration are key processes in this cycle.
• The nitrogen cycle involves the conversion of nitrogen gas into usable forms for plants, animals, and decomposers. Bacteria play a vital role in these conversions.
• Examples of cycles include the water cycle, carbon cycle, oxygen cycle, nitrogen cycle, and phosphorus cycle.

Cadenas Tróficas

• A food chain shows the transfer of energy from one organism to another in an ecosystem.
• It begins with producers (plants), followed by consumers (herbivores, carnivores, omnivores), and ends with decomposers.
• Producers make their own food through photosynthesis.
• Herbivores eat plants.
• Carnivores eat other animals.
• Omnivores eat both plants and animals.
• Decomposers break down dead organisms, returning nutrients to the soil.
• For example: Sun → Plant (producer) → Rabbit (herbivore) → Fox (carnivore) → Decomposers.
• Each step in a food chain is a trophic level.

Interacciones entre organismos

• Organisms in an ecosystem interact in various ways, affecting populations and communities.
• Competition occurs when organisms strive for the same resources, like food or territory.
• Predation occurs when one organism hunts and kills another for food.
• Symbiosis involves close interactions between different species.
• Mutualism is a symbiotic interaction where both species benefit, like bees and flowers.
• Commensalism is a symbiotic interaction where one species benefits and the other is neither harmed nor helped, like barnacles on a whale.
• Parasitism is a symbiotic interaction where one species (parasite) benefits at the expense of another (host), like a tick on a dog.
• These interactions are important because they shape and maintain the balances and diversity in ecosystems.