Ecosystems Lesson 1 PDF

ENERGY FLOW AND NUTRIENT LESSON 1 CYCLING, AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES Ecosystems are sustained by… ECOSYSTEM...

ENERGY FLOW AND NUTRIENT LESSON 1 CYCLING, AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES Ecosystems are sustained by… ECOSYSTEM 1. Energy flow through food chains and food webs Ecosystem - A community of different 2. Nutrient cycling species interacting with one another and with their nonliving environment Energy flow in ecosystems Ex. Tropical rainforest, coral reef, wetland, grassland 1. ☀️🌱Solar energy is converted to chemical energy in carbohydrates in producers (plants or phytoplankton) through photosynthesis. The “synthesis and storage of organic molecules during the growth and reproduction of Components of an Ecosystem photosynthetic organisms” is called 🐯 primary production. Abiotic Biotic (living) 2. Chemical energy is passed on to (non-living) other organisms (consumers) at different trophic levels in the food Water Plants chain through feeding and Air Animals 🦠 decomposition. Soil Bacteria 3. Decomposers are bacteria and Nutrients Fungi Heat fungi that break down complex Solar compounds in dead organisms and energy release the nutrients to the soil, 🦅 water or air for reuse by producers. An ecosystem is like a bicycle. Its whole is 4. Detritus feeders (detritivores) greater than the sum of its parts. Each part feed on wastes or dead organisms of a bicycle has a function, but it can (e.g. mites, earthworms, vultures) function only when it is connected correctly to the other parts. If all the parts of a bicycle are connected correctly, you will be able to ride your bike. 1 Energy Pyramid - A food web is a complex network of interconnected food chains. Biogeochemical cycles (Nutrient cycles) - Nutrients move continually through air, water, soil, rock, and living organisms in ecosystems and in the biosphere in cycles. - Reservoirs - As nutrients move through the biogeochemical cycles, - As energy is transferred from one they may accumulate in one portion trophic level to the next, some useful of the cycle and remain there for energy (typically 90%) is lost to the different lengths of time. These environment as heat. temporary storage sites include the atmosphere, the oceans and other - Thus, there is less energy to support waters, and underground deposits. the organisms at succeeding higher 🌊Water (hydrologic) cycle 💎Carbon cycle trophic levels. 1. 🧊Nitrogen cycle 2. 🪄Phosphorus cycle Food Web 3. 🌋Sulfur cycle 4. 5. 🌊Water cycle 1. Energy from the sun causes evaporation of water from the oceans, lakes, rivers, and soil. Water - In natural ecosystems, organisms from plants evaporate through a feed on more than one species, and process called transpiration. may have more than one type of 2. Water vapor from the atmosphere predator, forming a food web. returns to the earth’s surface as 2  💎Carbon Cycle precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, dew). 🏞️ 3. Fates of Precipitation a. Surface runoff - water that flows into streams and lakes eventually back to the oceans. b. Penetrate into the soil and to underground layers of rock, 🧋 sand, and gravel called aquifers, where it is 🧊 stored as groundwater. 🌱 c. Stored in glaciers. d. Absorbed by plants and - 🏗️Carbon is the basic building block 😋 used for photosynthesis of carbohydrates, fates, proteins and e. Consumed by consumers DNA that make up organisms. in the food chain. - → Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere Functions of the water cycle and in the oceans is absorbed by - Nutrients in rock and soil are producers during photosynthesis. transported within and - → Photosynthesis converts among ecosystems. carbon dioxide into - Water is purified by carbohydrates in plants. evaporation and subsequent - → The carbohydrates are then precipitation (“natural passed on to consumers in the food distillation”). chain. - Water flowing through - → Producers and consumers break streams, lakes and aquifers down carbohydrates during cellular is naturally filtered and respiration. partially purified by chemical - → Cellular respiration releases processes and bacterial carbon dioxide and water to the action. atmosphere as products. Human activities that disrupt the - ☠️When producers and consumers 🌳 water cycle die, decomposition also releases - Deforestation ♒ carbon dioxide back into the air. 🏙️ - 〰️Irrigation - In aquatic environments, 🥣 - Urbanization decomposition of dead organisms - Removing groundwater releases carbon as carbonates in 😷 from wells bottom sediments. - Pollution - Over millions of years, buried dead - Effects – flooding, drought, plant matter and bacteria are depletion of clean water transformed by heat and pressure 3  into fossil fuels (coal, oil and natural cannot be directly absorbed by gas). When the fossil fuels are plants and animals. extracted and burned for energy, the - First, nitrogen fixation occurs when carbon is released into the lightning or nitrogen-fixing bacteria in 🌱 ☠️ 🔥 ⛽ atmosphere as carbon dioxide. soil, water and plant roots convert - → → → N2 to ammonia. Some ammonia is converted to ammonium and used Human activities that disrupt the up by plants. carbon cycle - Unabsorbed ammonia and 🔥🔥🔥 - (Trapping of gas coz too ammonium are then converted to much) Too much nitrates by nitrifying bacteria. burning of fossil fuels to Nitrates are then absorbed by plants generate power releases and used to make proteins, DNA, carbon dioxide into the RNA and vitamins. The nitrogen is atmosphere. Carbon dioxide passed on to consumers through the in the atmosphere traps heat. food chain. Too much carbon dioxide into - Nitrogen is returned to the the atmosphere causes environment as wastes and through global warming, which decomposition after death and can leads to climate change. be re-absorbed by plants. 🌲 - (No sucker of gas) - Denitrifying bacteria in waterlogged Deforestation reduces soil, bottom sediments, swamps and trees that absorb carbon bogs convert ammonia and dioxide from the atmosphere ammonium back to N2 and N2O. during photosynthesis. Thus, 🥩 🧬 deforestation contributes to Nitrogen is a component of global warming. proteins and DNA (genes) in 🧊Nitrogen Cycle organisms. Human activities that disrupt the 🧟 nitrogen cycle - Improper use of fertilizers may cause eutrophication - 🌌The main reservoir of nitrogen is (excessive nutrients) in lakes and rivers. Eutrophication the atmosphere, where it exists as could lead to excessive nitrogen gas (N2). However N2 growth of algae (algal blooms). When the algae die, 4  they sink to the bottom and undergo decomposition. - When the phosphates are washed to Decomposers use up oxygen the oceans, they are deposited in dissolved in the water. sediments at the bottom and remain Depletion of oxygen leads to there for a very long time until the 🧟 🏞️ 🧫 💀 ♉ fish kills. bottom is uplifted to the surface by → → → → geological processes. - 🚗☢️🌧️Vehicles emit Phosphorous is a component of the 🩻 nitrogen oxides that following: 🪫 contribute to the formation of - Bones and teeth smog and acid rain. - ATP – molecule used for 🪄Phosphorous Cycle 🧪 energy by cells 🧬 - Cell membranes - DNA Human activities that disrupt the 🧟 phosphorus cycle - Fertilizers and detergents contain phosphorus. Improper use of fertilizers and detergents may cause eutrophication of lakes and rivers - 🚭The phosphorus cycle does not 🌋Sulfur Cycle include the atmosphere. - 🧂Phosphorus is stored as phosphate salts in rocks and ocean bottom sediments. Erosion of rocks through the action of water releases the phosphates, which are then absorbed by plants and other producers. Phosphate is a limiting factor for growth of plants because most soils contain little phosphates. Phosphorus is used to make nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), ATP (for - The main reservoir of sulfur are energy), bones and teeth. rocks and ocean sediments, Consumers obtain phosphorus where they occur as compounds of through the food chain. When the sulfates. Plants absorb sulfates and organisms die, phosphorus is use sulfur to make proteins. Sulfur returned to the environment through is passed on to consumers in the decomposition. food chain. When organisms die, 5  decomposition returns sulfur to the Genetic Erosion Aesthetic soil and are re-absorbed by plants. resources control values (e.g. Sulfur is also stored in fossil fuels Ornamental Water scenic drives) that form over millions of years from resources purification Inspiration buried organisms. and waste (e.g. art) - treatment Educational - In flooded soils or wetlands, bacteria Regulation values of human Sense of convert sulfate to sulfide ions, which diseases place react with metal ions to form Biological Cultural compounds that are deposited as control heritage rocks. Pollination Storm - Sulfur enters the atmosphere as: Protection - sulfur dioxide (SO2) from Supporting Services (services necessary volcanoes, for the production of all other ecosystem - hydrogen sulfide (H2S) also services, their impacts on people are from volcanoes and flooded either indirect or occur over a very long swamps and bogs time) - Dimethyl sulfide (DMS) from Soil formation marine algae, which is Nutrient cycling converted to SO2 Primary production Oxygen - DMS and SO2 react with other Habitat components of the atmosphere to produce acidic compounds that fall PHONS back to earth as acid rain. Ecosystem services are “benefits people obtain from ecosystems” Provisioning Regulating Cultural services services services (products (benefits (Nonmaterial obtained from the benefits from the regulation people ecosystem) of obtain from ecosystem ecosystems) processes) Food Air quality Spiritual and Freshwater maintenance religious Fuel Climate values Fiber and regulation Recreation wood Water and Biochemicals regulation ecotourism 6