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Unit 2: Ecosystems
Dr. UrvashiSanwal
Rajdhani College
University of Delhi

Ecology & Ecosystem

• The term Ecology was coined by Earnst Haeckel in 1869 and derived from the Greek words
Oikos(eco)- home + logos- study.

• Ecology is the study of organisms in their natural home interacting with their surroundings
[other living organisms (biotic) and physical (abiotic) components].

• The term Ecosystem was coined by A. E. Tansley in 1935.

• An ecosystem is a self- sustaining, structural and functional unit of biosphere where living
organisms interact with each other and with a biotic (non- living/ physical) components like
air, water, soil.

• Ecology is often defined as ‘‘the study of ecosystems’’.

• Ecosystem depends on solar energy which is captured by green plants and is passed on to
subsequent organisms and without a source of energy an ecosystem will not function.

• Ecosystem is an open system w.r.t flow of energy and a closed system w.r.t flow of minerals.

Types of Ecosystem
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Levels of Biological Organization

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• Atoms combine Molecules combine Cells which organize into Tissues which
organize to form Organs (neurons form brain etc) forming Body structure (bone
structure, etc) which forms an Organism

• A group of organism of same species that live together in the same area at the same time is a
Population.

• Species: Group of similar organisms whose members freely interbreed with one another in wild
to produce fertile offspring.

• Community: Population of different species thatlive and interacttogether within an area at the
same time form a community.

• Ecosystem: Community and abiotic factor

• Landscape: Region with several ecosystems

• Biosphere: Layer of earth containing all living organisms.

Structure of Ecosystem
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1. BIOTIC COMPONENTS: Different living organisms constitute the biotic component of an

ecosystem and belong to the following categories:
a. Producers/ Autotrophs: These are mainly producing food themselves e.g., Green plants
produce food by photosynthesis in the presence of sunlight from raw materials like
water and carbon dioxide. They are known as photo-autotrophs (auto = self, photo =
light, troph = food). There are some chemo-autotrophs, which are a group of bacteria,
producing their food from oxidation of certain chemicals. e.g. sulphur bacteria.
b. Consumers/ Heterotrophs: These organisms get their food by feeding on other
organisms. They are of the following types:
i. Herbivores/ Primary consumers—which feed on plants e.g. rabbit, cattle, deer.
ii. Carnivores/ Secondary or tertiary consumers—which feed on herbivores as
secondary carnivores (e.g., frog, small fish) or tertiary carnivores (e.g., snake, big
fish), which feed on other consumers.
iii. Omnivores—which feed on both plants and animals e.g., humans, rats, fox,
many birds.
iv. Detritivores/ saprotrophs—which feed on dead organisms, waste of living
organisms, partially decomposed mattere.g., termites, beetles, earth worm,
crab, ants, vulture.
c. Decomposers: These are micro-organisms which break down complex organic
compounds present in dead organisms into simpler inorganic compounds and in this
process they derive their nutrition. They decompose the dead remains of other
organisms (autotrophs and heterotrophs). They play a very important role in converting
the essential nutrients from unavailable organic form to free inorganic form that is
available for use by plants e.g., bacteria, fungi.

2. ABIOTIC COMPONENTS: Various physico-chemical components of the ecosystem constitute the

abiotic structure:
a. Climatic factors: include sunlight, solar intensity, rainfall, temperature, wind speed and
direction, water availability, soil texture etc.
b. Inorganic substances: include major essential nutrients like C, N, P, K, H2, O2, S etc. and
micronutrients like Fe, Mo, Zn, Cu etc., salts and toxic substances like pesticides.
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c. Organic substances: proteins, carbohydrates, fats which are present in the living
organisms.

These physico-chemical factors of water, air and soil play an important role in ecosystem functioning.

Function of Ecosystem
Three functional attributes of ecosystem:

1. Biological: Food chain, food web, ecological pyramids, ecological succession.

2. Physical: Energy flow

3. Biogeochemical process: Nutrient cycles

Physical functions of ecosystem

• Unidirectional non cyclic flow of energy from producers to consumers. Primary sources is the
Sun.

• Cyclic flow of nutrients from living organisms to non living environment achieved by activity of
decomposers.

Fig: Model of energy and mineral movement in ecosystem

Energy flow in ecosystem

1. Energy is not created. It is only converted from one form to another. Eg. Plants convert light
energy (from sun) to chemical energy in form of carbohydrate through the process of
photosynthesis.
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2. There is a continuous transfer of energy from one trophic level to next in food chain. In each
trophic level some energy is utilized by organism for activities and growth and rest is lost as heat
which isn’t utilized.
3. Since there is loss of energy as heat at each trophic level, the amount of energy available at
each successive level keeps on decreasing. The energy available at producer level is maximum.

1. Food chain: Sequential process of eating and being eaten. Pathway of transfer of energy and
nutrients. Flow of energy in food chain is unidirectional and nutrients is cyclic.

2. Trophic levels: Various steps in a food chain at which transfer of energy takes place.

• Producers: 1st trophic level

• Herbivores: 2nd trophic level

• Carnivores 3rd trophic level

• Top carnivores 4th trophic level

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Ten per cent law

At every successive step in the food-chain, there is huge loss of about 90% of the energy in different
processes (respiration, excretion, locomotion etc.) and only 10% moves to next level .

1. Only 10% of total energy entering a particular trophic level is available for transfer to next
trophic level because about 90% of the energy is utilized in different processes (respiration,
excretion, locomotion etc.)
2. The amount of energy available reduces as we move to higher trophic level.
3. So longer the food chain less energy is available to final trophic level. That is why food chain
doesn’t have more than six trophic levels.
4. Only 1 % of solar energy is utilized by plants
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Types of food chain

Fig: Grazing food chain in a pond ecosystem

Fig: Detritus food chain in an estuary based on dead leaves of mangrove trees
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Food web
1. Food web is a network of interconnected food chains.

2. In nature food chains are always inter connected and not isolated.

3. Food web provides alternate pathway of food, therefore a more stable ecosystem.

Ecological pyramids
1. Graphical representation of ecological parameters like number of individuals, biomass or
energy flow present at each trophic levels of a food chain.

2. Producers form base and top carnivores form the top of the pyramid.

3. Pyramid of numbers: An ecological pyramid constructed on the basis of number of organisms

in each trophic level.The pyramid is mostly upright (grass ecosystem) but can be inverted (tree
ecosystem)..
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4. Pyramid of biomass: An ecological pyramid constructed on the basis of total biomass (living
matter) of all organisms at each trophic level.The pyramid can be upright (terrestrial habitats;
forest ecosystem) or inverted (aquatic habitats; pond ecosystem)..
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5. Pyramid of energy: Graphical representation of the total amount of energy present in each
trophic level. The pyramid of energy is always upright.

Productivity of Ecosystem
1. It is rate of production of organic materials from inorganic components i.e. total amount of
organic matter accumulated in anyone unit time.
2. Organic compounds like carbohydrate, proteins and lipids contain carbon and Inorganic
compounds like salts, water, metals which lack carbon-hydrogen bonds.
3. Two levels:
a) Primary productivity: It is rate at which radiant energy (sunlight) is converted into
organic substances by photosynthesis/ chemo synthesis by primary producers.
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1. Gross primary productivity (GPP): Rate at which energy is captured by

plants during photosynthesis. Unit: Total photosynthesis per unit area
per unit time.
2. Net primary productivity (NPP): Rate at which organic matter is actually
incorporated into plant tissues for growth. Unit: Plant growth per unit
area per unit time. It is available as food for consumers.
3. Respiration loss (R): On producing organic matter by plants, some
energy is used for respiration. Unit: per unit area per unit time.
4. GPP = NPP + R

b) Secondary productivity: Refers to productivity at consumer level and can be defined as

rate of energy storage at consumer level for use by the next trophic level
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Ecological Succession
1. Refers to process of community development over time, involving species in one stage being
replaced by different species.

2. Refers to process of change in species structure of a community over time where species in one
stage are being replaced by different species

3. Community: assemblage of interacting population living together, occupying a given area.

4. Pioneer species enter new area, creating a baseline for other complex plant species to establish.

5. Final community is called climax community.

6. Intermediate stages in plant succession process are called Seral communities and each stage is
called seral stage
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• Primary Succession: This succession occurs in environment which has been uninhabited, devoid
of vegetation and lacks soil. Eg, barren land, rocks, lava flow

• Secondary Succession: This succession occurs in an area which has been previously occupied by
some communities but due to disturbance like floods, burning of forests and deforestation, after
few years the area is again occupied by new community. Eg. Abandoned cropland
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• 1.
• Development of a bare area without any life form.
• Causes: landslide, volcanic eruption, drought, over-grazing, fire,
agriculture

• 2.
• Invasion is successful establishment of species in a bare land
• 3 steps to complete invasion:
a) Dispersal: of seeds, spores by wind, water, bird (seeds and spores
come from different far off/ near by area)
b) Establishment: Seeds establish themselves in new area, grow and
reproduce.
c) Aggregation: Reproduce and will increase in no. and thus form a
group.
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3. Aggregation leads to
increase in no. of
individuals of species in
limited space, thus leading
to competition for food,
space, water.

Fittest individual survives.

4. Living organisms use resources in such a way that changes or

modifies the environment, this mechanism is called reaction. The
modification are such that they become unsuitable for the existing
species and favor some thus replacing them ie, being replaced by
another community.

5. Stabilization: Succession leads to a stage where community is

stable and for a long time period and maintains itself Such
community is called Climax community.
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Pioneer Species - First plants to colonize: mosses, lichens

• Rapid dispersal & colonizers.
• Rapid growth (opportunistic ).
• Relatively poor competitors in stable environments.
• Generalists (colonize any surface) .

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Climax Community
• May take 100’s or 1000’s of years to reach thisstage.
• Stage at which community has reached steady-state.
• Most permanent of all thestages.
• Determined by climatic or edaphic (soil) factors.

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Biogeochemical cycle
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• Biogeochemical: Nutritive elements derived from earth by living organisms for its growth and
metabolism

Bio—Life

Geo—Earth

Cycle

• Biogeochemical cycle: A cyclic flow of nutrients between non-living environment (air, water,
soil) and living organisms.

• Major nutrient elements: Carbon (C), Hydrogen (H), Oxygen (O), Nitrogen (N) which constitute
95% of living organisms and are recycled between living and non living components of
ecosystem.

Water cycle
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Nitrogen cycle
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Biomes
• Biome is a large terrestrial region which has similar climate, soil, plants and animals,
regardless of where it occurs in the world.

• Temperature and rainfall are major determinants of flora and fauna.

• 9 major biomes of world:

1. Tundra (cold plains of far north)

2. Taiga, Boreal forest (conifer forest of north)

3. Temperaterainforest

4. Temperate deciduous

5. Tropical rainforest

6. Temperate Grassland

7. Tropical Grassland: Savanna

8. Chaparral (thickets of evergreen shrubs and small trees

9. Deserts (Arid life zones)

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Tundra (cold plains of far north)

• Treeless biome in far north consisting of plains covered by lichens, mosses and
have harsh very cold winters and extremely short summer.

• Arctic tundra in Northern and Antarctic tundra in Southern hemisphere.

https:// earthobservatory.nasa.gov/biome/biotundra.php
Regions south of the ice caps of the Arctic and extending across
North America, Europe, and Siberia (high mountain tops) 40
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Tundra (cold plains of far north)

• Low species richness
• Low primary productivity

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Taiga, Boreal forest (conifer forest of north)

• A region of coniferous forest (pine, spruce) in Northern hemisphere; located just
south of tundra.
• Conifers are cone bearing plants
• Absent in Southern hemisphere.
• Present in North America, Europe, Asia

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Taiga, Boreal forest (conifer forest of north)

• Winter is cold and severe but not as harsh as in tundra.
• Soil is nutrient poor
• Rainfall 50 cm

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Taiga, Boreal forest (conifer forest of north)

• Permafrost is patchy and is located deep under the soil
• Many ponds and lakes
• Partially decomposed pine needles

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Temperate rainforest (lush forest)

• Coniferous biome with cool weather, dense fog and high precipitation
• Present in North America, South east Australia, Southern South America

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Temperate rainforest (lush forest)

• Plants : Evergreen trees (fir, cedar, spruce), plants growing on trunks of trees like
mosses, fern, lichens
• Animals: Squirrel, rats, deer, birds, reptiles, amphibians

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Temperate rainforest (lush forest)

• Plants : Evergreen trees (fir, cedar, spruce), plants growing on trunks of trees like
mosses, fern, lichens
• Animals: Squirrel, rats, deer, birds, reptiles, amphibians

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Temperate deciduous
• Forest biome that occurs in temperate area with moderate amount of
precipitation
• Deciduous trees are broad leaved trees which shed their leaves
• First biome to be converted to agricultural land

Eastern United States, Canada, Europe, China, and Japan

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Temperate deciduous
• Plants: broadleaved hardwood trees like oak, maple (lose foliage annually)
• Trees form dense canopies
• Animals: Puma, wolves, bison, deer, bear, birds, frogs, snakes, lizards.

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Tropical rainforest (Lush equatorial forest)

• There are two types of rainforests, tropical and temperate.
• Tropical rainforests are found closer to the equator where it is warm.
Temperate rainforests are found near the cooler coastal areas further north or
south of the equator.
• The tropical rainforest is a hot, moist biome where it rains all year long.
• It is a species rich forest biome.

Between the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn

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Central and South America, Africa, SE Asia
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Tropical rainforest (Lush equatorial forest)

1. The top layer or canopy contains giant trees that grow to heights of 75 m or more.
• They get direct sunlight
• This layer of vegetation prevents much of the sunlight from reaching the ground.
• Thick, woody vines are also found in the canopy. They climb trees in the canopy
to reach for sunlight, connecting tops of trees and provide walkway for canopy
residents
• Vines provide nector and fruits for animals living in tress
• 90% of organisms live in upper canopy

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Tropical rainforest (Lush equatorial forest)

1. The top layer or canopy (vines)

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Tropical rainforest (Lush equatorial forest)

2. The middle layer forms continuous story (30-40 m or more) is made up of vines,
smaller trees, ferns, and palms. Small amount of sunlight (only 2-3% reaches forest
understory) s is received by these plants.

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Tropical rainforest (Lush equatorial forest)

3. The bottom layer or floor of the rainforest is covered with wet leaves and leaf litter.
This material decomposes rapidly in the wet, warm conditions (like a compost pile)
sending nutrients back into the soil. Few plants are found on the floor of the forest
due to the lack of sunlight.

Animals: insects, reptiles, amphibians, multicolored bids (birds of paradise), parrot,

insects, monkeys, elephants, sloths
Plants: Vines, palm trees, orchids, ferns
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Temperate grassland
• Grasslands are generally open and continuous, fairly flat areas of grass.
• Located between temperate forests at high latitudes and deserts at subtropical
latitudes. Grasses vary in size from 2.1 m to 20 to 25 cm tall.
• Few trees may be found along streams, but not many due to the lack of rainfall.

The prairies of the Great Plains of North America, the pampas of South America, the
veld of South Africa, the steppes of Central Eurasia, and surrounding the deserts in
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Australia

Tropical grassland
• Called as Savanna
• Africa, South America, Northern Australia

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Tropical grassland
• Seasonal rainfall (76-150 cm), long dry periods
• Widely scattered trees of Acacia, Eucalyptus
• Wide expanse of grasses occasional trees like acacia
• Animals : giraffes, zebra, elephant, lions, hyenas

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Deserts: Arid life zone

• Desert biomes are the driest of all the biomes.
• Temperate (cold) desert; sub tropical (warm ) desert
• Rainfall 25 cm / year
• The daytime temperature averages 38°C while in some deserts it can get down to -4°C
at night (daily extreme hot and cold)
• Less vegetation.
• High salt content.

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Deserts: Arid life zone

• Namib desert (Africa
• Atacama desert (Chile and Peru)
• Cold desert: Gobi desert in China
• Since desert conditions are so severe, the plants that live there need to have
adaptations to compensate for the lack of water. Some plants, such as cacti, store
water in their stems and use it very slowly, while others like bushes conserve water by
growing few leaves or by having large root systems to gather water or few leaves.

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Deserts: Arid life zone

• Since desert conditions are so severe, the plants that live there need to have
adaptations to compensate for the lack of water. Some plants, such as cacti, store
water in their stems and use it very slowly, while others like bushes conserve water by
growing few leaves or by having large root systems to gather water or few leaves.
• Plants: Thorny shrubs, date palm, Prosopis, Acacia
• Animals: Scorpions, rattle snakes, insects, fox, owls, rodents, spiders; Kangaroos in
Australian desert

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Flowing water ecosystem:

• Many different conditions exist along the length of a river or stream.
• Nature of this system change greatly between its source (where it begin) and
mouth (where it empties into another water body).
• They differ in:
1. volume of water
2. Speed of water
3. oxygen content
4. temperature
5. physical and chemical conditions

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Flowing water ecosystem:

Streams originate from melting glaciers
1. Headstream (source of a river); shallow, cool, swift flowing, highly oxygenated
(large amount of dissolved oxygen), clean water
• In fast streams organisms have adaptation like hooks, suckers to attach
themselves to rocks so that they don’t get swept away. Some beetles have
flattened bodies to slip under / between rocks. Fish have streamline and
muscular bodies.

2. Downstream from headwaters: Wider, deeper, volume of water increases,

slow flowing, increase in temperature with great availability of sunlight, cloudy
(sediments and suspended particulate matter ), less oxygenated. Org. don't
need adaptation as water is slow moving.

3. In lower reaches, rich in biodiversity, fish, crocodiles, snails, water insects,

• River brings along a lot of silt , rich in nutrients, deposited in plains and
delta (A river delta is a landform created by deposition of sediment that is
carried by a river as the flow leaves its mouth and enters slower-moving or
stagnant water. This occurs where a river enters an ocean, sea) before
reaching ocean.
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Freshwater Wetland ecosystem (Marshes & Swamps):

• Wetlands are areas where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near
the surface of the soil all year or for varying periods of time during the year,
including during the growing season.

• Land which shallow freshwater covers for a part of the year.

• Marshes (grass dominant ); swamps (woody trees/ shrubs dominant)

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Wetland ecosystem (Marshes and Swamps):

• Water logged soils
• Water tolerant vegetation
• Highly productive
• Rich biodiversity
• Provide natural flood control (ecosystem services)
• Groundwater recharge area(ecosystem services)
• Fish, frogs, snails, reeds, planktons
• Ramsar convention 1971
• Cypress trees, maple trees

Marine ecosystem
• Gigantic reservoir of water
• Cover 70% of earth surface
• Water posses a high salt content
• Types
1. Saline water :
a) Open sea
b) Costal region
2. Brackish water (results from mix of fresh and salt water )
a) Saltwater wetlands
b) Estuaries
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Marine ecosystem; Open Sea

• Deeper part of ocean
• Sea water in continuous circulation due to currents.
• Three categories of organisms:
a) Free floating planktons (small, microscopic, carried by waves, weak
swimmers)
• Phyto: free floating algae, cynobacteria
• Zoo (non photosynthetic protozoa, larvae
b) Nekton: fishes, turtle, whales, snakes, sharks, seals
c) Benthos: bottom dwelling org.
• fix themselves to one spot like sponges, oysters
• Burrow into sand (worms, clams, sea cucumbers)
• Walk at bottom (crawfish, aquatic insect larvae)

Marine ecosystem; Estuaries

• An estuary is a partially enclosed, coastal water body where freshwater from
rivers and streams mixes with salt water from the ocean. Eg. Coastal bays, tidal
marshes/ saltwater marshes
• Estuaries, and their surrounding lands, are places of transition from land to
sea.
• Estuarine environments are among the most productive on earth, creating
more organic matter each year than comparably-sized areas of forest,
grassland or agricultural land.
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Mangrove forest
1. A mangrove is a shrub or small tree that grows in coastal saline or brackish water.

2. Mangroves are a group of trees and shrubs that live in the coastal intertidal zone.

3. Mangroves are salt-tolerant trees. They contain a complex salt filtration system and complex
root system to cope with salt water immersion and wave action. They are adapted to the low
oxygen conditions of waterlogged mud.
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4. Because the soil is perpetually waterlogged, little free oxygen is available, they have aerial roots
which allow mangroves to absorb gases directly from the atmosphere, and other nutrients such
as iron, from the inhospitable soil. Mangroves store gases directly inside the roots, processing
them even when the roots are submerged during high tides.

• Orange Mangrove.

• Red Mangrove.

• River mangrove.

• Grey Mangrove.

5. Birds roost in the canopy, shellfish attach themselves to the roots, and snakes and crocodiles
come to hunt. Mangroves provide nurseries for fish; a food sources for monkeys, deer, tree-
climbing crabs... and a nectar source for bats and honeybees."

6. The Pichavaram mangroves in Tamil Nadu is India's one of the largest mangrove forests.

7. The Bhitarkanika Mangroves Forest of Odisha, by the Bay of Bengal, is India's second largest
mangrove forest.

Types of ecosystem in India: Threat & Conservation

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Ecosystem services:
• Ecosystem services are the goods and services provided by ecosystems that maintain and
improve human well-being.
• 4 main categories:
a) provisioning,
b) regulating,
c) cultural, and
d) supporting.

Ecosystem restoration:
• Ecosystem Restoration is the “process of assisting the recovery of an ecosystem that has
been degraded, damaged or destroyed”.
• Restoration ecology is about bringing back the structural and functional diversity of the
degraded ecosystem to its original state.

Homeostatis/ Cybernetic nature

1. Derived from two greek words; Homeo: unchanging, statis standby (staying the same).

2. Tendency or inherent property of all living to resist change and maintain an equilibrium.

3. Ecosystem regulates and maintains itself and resists any stress or disturbances up to a limit.
This self- regulation or control is called cybernetic system.

4. There is a max. and min. range of tolerance called homeostatic plateau (range of tolerance).

5. Negative feedback

6. Positive feedback

7. We shouldn’t contribute to Positive feedback or else ecosystem will collapse

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