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CH- Our Environment || Marks- 05
Name: - ||
ECO-SYSTEM — WHAT ARE ITS COMPONENTS?
• All the interacting organisms in an area together with the non-living constituents of the
environment form an ecosystem.
• An ecosystem consists of biotic components comprising living organisms and abiotic
components comprising physical factors like temperature, rainfall, wind, soil and
minerals.
Ecosystem
Man-made Ecosystem
Natural Ecosystem Example: Crop land ,
Aquarium etc
Note:- Natural Ecosystem can be futhere divided into (a) Aquatic Ecosystem- Marine and Fresh
water and (b) Terristerial Ecosystem (eg- Land, forest, desert etc)
Components of An Ecosystem:
(a) Abiotic Ecosystem: These are the non-living components of an ecosystem, such as light,
tempertaure, water, air and soil etc.
(b) Biotic Components: They are the living components such as plants, animals, bacteria etc.
Organism
Producers Consumers Decomposers
• Producers: All green plants, blue green algae which can produce their own food( sugar
and starch) from inorganic substance using light energy (through phtosynthesis) are
called the producers.
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Note: Organisms depend on the producers either directly or indirectly for their
sustenance(Survival).
• Consumers: These organisms are the one which consume the food produced, either
directly from producers or indirectly by feeding on other consumers are the consumers.
Note: Consumers can be classed variously as herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and
parasites.
• Decomposers: These are the microorganism that breaks down the complex organic
substances into simpler inorganic substances.
ROLE OF DECOMPOSERS:
• They decompose biodegradable substances into useful substances.
• They release nutrients into soil by decomposing dead and decaying matter, thus making
the soil fertile.
• They maintain the nutrient pool by returning back the nutrients in the pool.
Q. What will happen if there is no decomposers in an ecosystem?
Ans:- Explain its role/importance and mention that these role will not be performed.
Q. We do not clean ponds or lakes but an aquarium needs to be cleaned. Why ?
Ans: An aquarium is an artificial system which is also incomplete due to absence of producers,
food chains and decomposers. There is no recycling and self-cleaning. However, a pond or
a lake is a self-sustained, natural and complete ecosystem where there is perfect
recycling of nutrients.
Food Chains and Webs
Food Chain: It is the sequence of living organism in which one organism consumes another
organism to fulfil its energy reqirement.
Characterstics of food chain:
(a) A food chain is always straight and proceeds in a progressive straight line(i.e its is
unidirectional)
(b) It helps to understand the food relationship and interactions anong various organisms in
an ecosystem.
(c) Its also helps to understand the movement of toxic substance and the problem of
biological magnification.
FOOD CHAIN
Terrestrial Aquatic
Terrestrial food chain is present in land and can be seen in (a) forest or (b) grassland
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Aquatic food chain can be in fresh water (pond , lake etc) or marine ( ocean or sea) as shown
below.
Trophic Level: These are the various steps or levels of a food chain.
✓ The autotrophs or the producers are at the first trophic level.
✓ The herbivores or the primary consumers come at the second level.
✓ Small carnivores or the secondary consumers at the third level.
✓ larger carnivores or the tertiary consumers form the fourth trophic level.
The flow of energy between various components of the
environment has been extensively studied and it has been
found that:
➢ The green plants in a terrestrial ecosystem capture
about 1% of the energy of sunlight that falls on their
leaves and convert it into food energy.
➢ An average of 10% of the food eaten is turned into its own
body and made available for the next level of consumers.
➢ Since so little energy is available for the next level of
consumers, food chains generally consist of only three
or four steps.
➢ There are generally a greater number of individuals at
the lower trophic levels of an ecosystem, the greatest
number is of the producers.
From the energy flow diagram as shown above two things become clear:
(a) The flow of energy is unidirectional. The energy that is captured by the autotrophs does not
revert back to the solar input.
(b) The energy available at each trophic level gets diminished progressively due to loss of
energy at each level.
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(c) 10 % LAW: It states that only 10% of energy contained in a lower trophic level is trapped by
next higher tropic level, the remaining 90% being lost in transfer and respiration of the
latter.
Food Web: It is the network of interconnected food chains which are interdependent to each
other.
Fig: Food Web
FOOD CHAIN Food web
(a) It is a series of organisms feeding on one (a) It is a web( network) of number of
another. interlinked food chains.
(b) Members of higher trophic level feed upon a (b) Members of higher trophic level feed upon
single type of organism many organism.
(c) It consists of only one chain (c) It consists of many chains.
Biological magnification: It is the process by which the harmful and toxic substances entre
food chain and gets concetrated in the boday of organisms at each sucessive level of food chain.
Note:
(a) The maximum concentration is accumulated at the top carnivore’s level.
(b) Since man is an omnivore and has access to all trophic level, thus they get affected more.
Ozone Layer and How it is Getting Depleted
Formation: Ozone(O3) is a molecule formed by three oxygen atoms. It is formed by the reaction
of ultraviolet (UV) radiations on oxygen(O2) molecules.
The higher energy UV radiations split apart some moleculer oxygen (O2) into free oxygen
(O) atoms. These atoms then combine with the molecular oxygen to form ozone as shown above.
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Q. Why is damage of ozone layer a cause of concern to us?
Ans: At the higher levels of the atmosphere, ozone performs an essential function :
(a) It shields the surface of the earth from ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the Sun.
(b) This radiation, is highly damaging to organisms, for example, it is known to cause skin
cancer in human beings.
Q. State the Cause of the damage of ozone layer.
Ans: The amount of ozone in the atmosphere began to drop sharply in the 1980s. This decrease
has been linked to synthetic chemicals like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) which are used as
refrigerants and in fire extinguishers.
Managing the Garbage, we Produce:
Waste
Non-
Biodegradable
Biodegradable
Biodegradable Waste: These are the waste which can be decomposed by decomposers like
bacteria and other organisms, thus not causing any pollution.
Example: Vegetable peels, dung etc.
Problem Associated:
(a) Slow decomposition of biodegradable waste release foul smell and harmful gases.
(b) They may produce some harmful gases such as ammonia, methane etc which can further
cause global warming.
Non-Biodegradable Waste: These are the waste which cannot be broken down by natural
organism, thus acts as a source of pollution.
Example: Pastic, polythen etc.
Problem Associated:
(a) The non-biodegradable substances remain in the non-degraded form for a long time in the
environment and thus cause pollution.
(b) They can enter the food chain in different ways. For example, they can enter the plant
tissue through the soil or contaminated water.
(c) The presence of these substances can affect the physical environment by reducing the
fertility of the soil as well.
Methods of safe disposal of non-biodegradable substances:
➢ Recycling is one of the ways to safely dispose non-biodegradable substances.
➢ Landfill is another option, where the non-biodegradable substances are dumped in a low-
lying region and covered with soil.
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Q.1 Which one of the following is an artificial ecosystem?
(a) Pond (b) Crop field (c) Lake (d) Forest
Q.2 In a food chain, the third trophic level is always occupied by
(a) carnivores (b) herbivores (c) decomposers (d) producers
Q.3 In the given food chain, suppose the amount of energy at fourth trophic level is 5 kJ, what
will be the energy available at the producer level?
Grass → Grasshopper → Frog → Snake → Hawk
(a) 5 k J (b) 50 k J (c) 500 k J (d) 5000 k J
Q.4 Accumulation of non-biodegradable pesticides in the food chain in increasing amount at
each higher trophic level is known as
(a) eutrophication (b) pollution (c) biomagnification (d) accumulation
Q.5 Depletion of ozone is mainly due to
(a) chlorofluorocarbon compounds (b) carbon monoxide (c) methane (d) pesticides
Q.6 In an ecosystem, the 10% of energy available for transfer from one trophic level to the next
is in the form of
(a) heat energy (b) light energy (c) chemical energy (d) mechanical energy
Q.7 Flow of energy in an ecosystem is always
(a) unidirectional (b) bidirectional (c) multi directional (d) no specific direction
Q.8 Which group of organisms are not constituents of a food chain?
(i) Grass, lion, rabbit, wolf (ii) Plankton, man, fish, grasshopper
(iii) Wolf, grass, snake, tiger (iv) Frog, snake, eagle, grass, grasshopper
(a) (i) and (iii) (b) (iii) and (iv) (c) (ii) and (iii) (d) (i) and (iv)
Q.9 In the given Figure the various trophic levels are shown in a pyramid. At which trophic
level is maximum energy available?
(a) T4 (b) T2 (c) T1 (d) T3
Q.10 The percentage of solar radiation absorbed by all the green plants for the process of
photosynthesis is about
(a) 1 % (b) 5 % (c) 8 % (d) 10 %
Q.11 How much of the net primary productivity of a terrstrial ecosystem is eaten and digested
by harbivores?
(a) 100% (b) 10% (c) 1% (d) 0.1%
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Q.12 In the following food chain, plants provide 500 J of energy to rats. How much energy will
be available to hawks from the snakes?
Plants → Rats→ Snakes → Hawk
Q.13 What are decomposers? What will be the consequences of their absence in an ecosystem?
Q.14 Define a food chain? Design a terristrial food chain of four trophic levels.
Q.15 How do harmful chemicals get accumulated progressively at each trophic level in a food
chain?
Q.16 If 20,000 J of energy was transferred by the producers to the organism of second trophic
level. Calculate the amount of energy that will be transferred by organisms of the third
trophic level to the organisms of the fourth trophic level.
Q.17 How is ozone formed in the higher levels of the atmosphere? “Damage to ozone layer is a
cause of concern”, justify this statement.
Q.18 Use of several pesticides which results in excessive accumulation of pesticides in rivers
or ponds, is a matter of deep concern. Justify this statement.
Q.19 Explain how some harmful chemicals enter our bodies through the food chain. Why is the
concentration of these harmful chemicals found to be maximum in human beings ?
Q.20 (a) State any one advantage of using cloth bags over plastic bags.
(b) List any two methods by which the solid wastes generated in urban areas can be safely
disposed off.
Q.21 Define trophic levels. At which trophic level do we find
(i) secondary and (ii) tertiary consumers in a food chain ? What will happen if all the
organisms of a trophic level die ? Give reasons to justify your answer.
Q.22 Distinguish between biodegradable and non-biodegradable substances.
Q.23 Why are bacteria and fungi called decomposers? List two advanatages of decomposers to
the environment.
Q.24 What will happen if we kill all the organisms in one trophic level?