ECOSYSTEMLEVELS OF ECOLOGICAL ORGANIZATION

ECOSYSTEM

BY MUNEEBA FATIMAMSc,ZOW,UoK.

An ecosystem includes all of the living things (plants, animals and organisms) in a given area, interacting with each other, and also with their non-living environments (weather, earth, sun, soil, climate, atmosphere).

What is an Ecosystem?

An ECOSYSTEM is a community of living organisms (plants, animals and microbes) in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air, water and mineral soil), interacting as a system.

LEVELS OF ECOLOGICAL ORGANIZATION

Levels of organization in ecology

include the population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere. An ecosystem is all the living things in an area interacting with all of the abiotic parts of the environment.

PRODUCERS Plants are called producers. This is because

they produce their own food! They do this by using light energy from the Sun, carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil to produce food - in the form of glucouse/sugar. The process is called photosynthesis.

CONSUMER Animals are called consumers. This is

because they cannot make their own food, so they need to consume (eat) plants and/or animals.

Parts of the Food Chain (Producers/Consumers...)

Animals that eat only plants.

Animals that eat only ANIMALS.

Animals that eat both animals AND plants. Humans are also omnivores!

Decomposers are organisms that break down dead or decaying organisms, and in doing so, carry out the natural process of decomposition. Like herbivores and predators, decomposers are heterotrophic, meaning that they use organic substrates to get their energy, carbon and nutrients for growth and development.

Bacteria and fungi are decomposers. They eat decaying matter - dead plants and animals and in the process they break them down and decompose them When that happens, they release nutrients and mineral salts back into the soil - which then will be used by plants!

FOOD CHAIN

A food chain is a linear sequence of links in a food web starting from "producer" species (such as grass or trees) and ending at apex predator "decomposer" species (like grizzly bears or killer whales). A food chain also shows how the organisms are related with each other by the food they eat.

In a FOOD CHAIN, energy is passed from one link to another. When a herbivore eats, only a fraction of the energy (that it gets from the plant food) becomes new body mass; the rest of the energy is lost as waste or used up by the herbivore to carry out its life processes (e.g., movement, digestion, reproduction). Therefore, when the herbivore is eaten by a carnivore, it passes only a small amount of total energy (that it has received) to the carnivore. Of the energy transferred from the herbivore to the carnivore, some energy will be "wasted" or "used up" by the carnivore. The carnivore then has to eat many herbivores to get enough energy to grow.

In biology and ecology, abiotic components or, abiotic factors, are non-living chemical and physical parts of the environment that affect living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems. Abiotic factors and phenomena associated with them underpin all biology.