1. Energy Flow Through an Ecosystem
Food Chains, Food Webs, Energy Pyramids
copyright cmassengale

2. Production (cont’d) Learning Targets:
Construct a food chain and a food web
Understand that energy flows through ecosystems in one direction, from the sun through producers to consumers to decomposers.
Explain how changes in habitat may affect organisms.
Recommended Resources:
Essential Terminology:
Ecosystem, Producer, consumer, decomposer, predator, prey, mutualism, parasite, parasitalism, commensalism, symbiosis, photosynthesis, offspring, Nitrogen cycle, food web, aquatic, terrestrial, coexist
Online (only links specific to this standard):
Production (cont’d)

3. OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS
Species: a group of organisms that can breed with each other and produce fertile offspring. 
Population: a group of organisms of the same species who live in the same area at the same time.

4. ECOSYSTEMS
Community: all the organisms of all species living and interacting in an area. 
Ecosystem: A community of plants and animals interacting with their non-living environments (weather, Sun, soil)

5. BIOMES CONSIST OF MANY ECOSYSTEMS
A biome is a large geographical region where certain types of plants and animals thrive. Each biome has a unique set of environmental conditions primary determined by climate and relationship to the Equator.
BIOMES CONSIST OF MANY ECOSYSTEMS

6. BIOMES

7. ECOSYSTEMS – HABITAT AND NICHE
Habitat: the environment in which a species normally lives or the location of a living organism.
  The habitat of an animal supplies it with everything it needs to survive - food, water, and a home.

8. NICHE
A niche refers to the way in which an organism fits into an ecological community or ecosystem. (it could be compared to the “job” they do in the community)
No two species can occupy exactly the same niche but they can share a habitat
Watch this …niche and habitat

9. ECOSYSTEM The living and non –living parts of an ecosystem are named….
These non living components are called abiotic factors
The living parts of an ecosystem are its biotic factors

10. What abiotic factors can you name

11. WHAT FLOWS IN AN ECOSYSTEM

12. ENERGY AND NUTRIENTS
An ecosystem's development and success depends on the energy and nutrients that moves in and out of that system.
These link the living, or biotic, components to the non-living, or abiotic, components.

13. Nutrient and Energy Flow in an Ecosystem

14. Key facts – Energy and Nutrients
Growth
Repair of tissues and cells
Reproduction
Movement
Production of essential
chemicals (such as proteins)

15. Where Does The Energy In An Ecosystem Come From
The source of all energy comes from either the sun (photosynthesis)
or from chemicals released from hydrothermal vents and methane seeps (chemosynthesis)
CHEMOSYNTHESIS

16. WATCH THIS Chemosyn as birth of life
Compares Photo to Chemo

17. Notice in both cases energy comes in the form of carbon bonds

18. What Do Photosythesis And Chemosynthesis Have In Common?
Both methods involve an energy source
Photosynthesis uses sunlight, chemosynthesis uses chemicals
In both methods, carbon dioxide and water are used to produce sugars.
Photosynthesis gives off oxygen gas as a byproduct, while chemosynthesis produces sulfur (or other chemicals).

19. ENERGY IN ECOSYSTEMS
Photosynthetic organisms use solar energy to turn CO2 and H20 into sugar and O2
chemosynthetic organisms use energy stored in bonds of hydrogen sulfide (H2S)** add CO2 and O2 and produce sugar, sulfur, and water: CO2 + 4H2S + O2 -> CH20 + 4S + 3H2O.
(***note other chemosynthetic organisms use energy from methane (CH4)

20. Key facts - Energy and Nutrients
So…..Energy "flows" through the ecosystem in the form of carbon-carbon bonds present in sugars and other carbohydrates .
The carbon-carbon bonds break during respiration and carbon is combined with O2 to form CO2.
This process releases the energy, which is either used by the organism or released as heat.
The ultimate fate of all energy in an ecosystems is to be lost as heat.

21. The ultimate fate of all energy in ecosystems is to be lost as heat
The ultimate fate of all energy in ecosystems is to be lost as heat. Energy does not recycle!!
Glucose & other sugars
Cellular
respiration

22. NUTRIENTS
Elements that are required for the development, maintenance, and reproduction of organisms are called nutrients.
The use, transformation, movement, and reuse of nutrients in ecosystems is called nutrient cycling .

23. NUTRIENTS- BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLING
We have already seen that energy does cannot be recycled in an ecosystem…..but nutrients are recycled.
The nutrients cycle through more than the organisms, however, they also enter into the atmosphere, the oceans, and even rocks.
As a result, it is more accurate to refer to nutrient cycles as biogeochemical cycles since they move through the living and nonliving environment over long periods of time.

24. Watch these Animation ----energy and nutrients

26. CARBON CYCLE

27. NUTRIENTS
For example, we know, carbon was buried deep in the Earth when …. This is why we get CO2 when we burn fossil fuel.
We also know that carbon can return to the Earths crust when shelled organism die and sink to the bottom of the ocean

28. NUTRIENTS
There are dozens of nutrients that organisms need to survive.
In the study of ecosystems, the discussion if often limited to the biogeochemical cycles
of water, carbon, nitrogen & phosphorous

29. CARBON CYCLE
The carbon nutrient cycle is the basis for most of the biomass in all ecosystems. Carbon makes up about 18% of the human body . Water is ~70%
Living tissue contain carbon, in its proteins, fats and carbohydrates.

30. Nutrients
inorganic nutrients. They are inorganic because they do not contain carbon-carbon bonds.
These inorganic nutrients include nitrogen, and phosphorous

31. NITROGEN AND PHOSPHOROUS
Nitrogen is important to the structure and functioning of organisms. It forms part of key biomolecules such as amino acids (which make proteins) and nucleic acids (which make DNA and RNA),
Phosphorus forms part of the ATP (which is used to get energy from food), RNA, DNA, and cell membranes and is essential for bones and teeth.

32. MAIN IDEA
To summarize: In the flow of energy and inorganic nutrients through the ecosystem:
1.The ultimate source of energy is the sun or chemicals from hydrothermal vents and methane seeps
2.The ultimate fate of energy in ecosystems is for it to be lost as heat.
3.Energy and nutrients are passed from organism to organism through the food chain as one organism eats another.
4.Decomposers remove the last energy from the remains of organisms.
5.Inorganic nutrients are cycled, energy is not.

33. WATCH THIS – Energy and nutrinets http://www. cengage

34. PRODUCERS AND CONSUMERS

35. Organisms are either producers or consumers in terms of energy flow:
OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS
Organisms are either producers or consumers in terms of energy flow:

36. CONSUMERS AND PRODUCERS
Producers: Organisms that can produce their own food and do not rely on other organisms for food.
As we have already learned, there are 2 types of producers:
Photosynthetic Producers and
Chemosynthetic producers
Producers are also called autotrophs

37. Consumers
Consumers: Organisms that can not produce their own food and must rely on other organisms for food.
Consumers are also called heterotrophs

38. Consumers
Consumers are placed into several categories based on their diet:
A herbivore is an animal that gets its energy from eating plants, and only plants
An omnivore is a kind of animal that eats either other animals or plants
A carnivore is an animal that gets food from killing and eating other animals.
scavengers feed on dead animals. They eat at all kinds of organisms both plant and animal
Decomposers -organisms that completes the job of breaking down living and dead tissue so that the nutrients and can be returned and recycled

39. FOOD CHAINS &
FOOD WEBS

41. FOOD CHAIN/FOOD WEB
Food Chains, food webs and pyramids are used to show the transfer of nutrients, and energy from one species to another within an ecosystem.

42. Each food chain represents 1 possible path that energy and nutrients may take as they move through the ecosystem.

43. FOOD CHAINS & FOOD WEBS
Each food chain begins with a producer and ends with a top predator.
The arrows in a food chain show the flow of energy, As the energy flows from organism to organism, energy is lost at each step.

44. TROPHIC LEVELS
Each level of a food web or a food chain is called a trophic or feeding level.

45. Trophic Levels
At each trophic level energy is used up and waste material produced, so there is less energy available for transfer to the next trophic level

46. Trophic level in a food chain
The first trophic level in any food chain is the producers
The second level, called the Primary Consumers, feed on green plants and are
usually herbivores (insects, zooplankton)
The third trophic levels are Secondary Consumers. They usually eat up the
primary consumers and are carnivores or maybe omnivores
There are often additional trophic levels.
Organisms at the top of the food chain are often called predators.

47. The unsung heroes
Decomposers like fungi and bacteria complete any food chain.
They turn organic wastes, such as decaying plants, into inorganic material. (compare them to a recycling truck)
Often, however, they are not shown in a food chain.

48. FOOD WEB A network of many food chains is called a food web.
A food web is a series of interwoven food chains. It show the feeding relationships in an ecosystem.
A food web is a more accurate picture of energy flow because many organisms eat a variety of foods rather than a single species of animal or plant.

49. Food Web Practice http://www.gould.edu.au/foodwebs/kids_web.htm

50. ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS

51. Energy Pyramid
Shows the relative amount of energy available at each trophic level. Organisms use about 10 percent of this energy for
life processes. The rest is lost as heat.
Pyramid of Numbers
Shows the relative number of individual organisms at each trophic level.

52. copyright cmassengale
Energy Pyramids
Amount of available energy decreases for higher consumers
It takes a large number of producers to support a small number of primary consumers
It takes a large number of primary consumers to support a small number of secondary consumers.
At each trophic level energy is used up and waste material produced, so therefore less energy available at each higher trophic level
copyright cmassengale

53. FOOD PYRAMIDS
An ecological ENERGY pyramid is an illustration of the reduction in energy as you move through each feeding (trophic) level in an ecosystem.

54. ENERGY AND TROPHIC LEVELS
Primary consumers only obtain only about 10% of the total energy captured from sun by the producers they eat.
The other 90% is used by the producer for growth, reproduction, and survival, or it is lost as heat. eat leaves, for instance.

55. ANIMATION – ENERGY FLOW IN PYRAMID

56. Ecology Pyramids are Also Used to Show Numbers, Or Biomass
BUT…….note that it may not always take on the shape of an upright pyramid

57. CREATING BALANCE
Numbers of Organisms: Because energy is lost each time one organism eats another there have to be many more plants than there are plant-eaters and more plant-eaters than meat-eaters.

58. Pyramid of Numbers
In a food chain the members at the successive higher levels are generally fewer in number

59. Pyramid of Biomass
The biomass is defined as the total weight of dry matter (dry weight) present in the ecosystem at any one time. The biomass can be measured graphically.
Pyramid of Numbers
Shows the relative number of individual organisms at each trophic level.

60. Biomass Pyramid

61. Watch this – energy loss in pyramid
/27995-assignment-discovery-energy-flow-video.htm

62. To summarize:
The ultimate source of energy (for most ecosystems) is the sun
Most of the energy in ecosystems is lost as heat.
Energy and nutrients are passed from organism to organism through the food chain as one organism eats another.
Decomposers remove the last energy from the remains of organisms.
Inorganic nutrients are recycled, energy is not.

64. copyright cmassengale
EXTEND YOUR UNDERSTANDING
copyright cmassengale

65. Competition – two species share a requirement for a
limited resource  one or both species is adversely impacted

66. Predation – one species feeds on another  benefit predator but negatively impacts the prey
herbivory is a form of
predation

67. Parasitism – one species feeds on another  benefits parasite but adversely impacts the host
It is often in such a way that its health is impaired only slowly. This allows the parasite to exploit its host over a longer period of time

68. Symbiosis – two species live together  can include
parasitism, mutualism, and commensalism

69. Mutualism – two species provide resources or services
to each other  benefits both species

70. Commensalism –is a relationship between two different organisms one partner benefits from the relationship, while the other neither benefits, nor is harmed

71. MIMICRY
Mimicry, one species imitating another to gain the benefits enjoyed by that species.
Mimics may imitate colors, patterns, or even behavior of another species for one of two reasons:
Either to be able to get closer to unsuspecting prey
To gain protection by imitating a predator or poisonous species.

72. parasitism mutualism commensalism http://www. youtube. com/watch

73. Organizing ecological interactions
effect on species 1
predation
herbivory
parasitism + -
commensalism
mutualism
effect on
species 2
competition

76. The organic molecules are the carbonhydrattes

77. AUTROPHS AND HETEROTROPHS