UG SEMESTER-2

Environmental Education
Ecosystem: Concept, structure and function (food chains, food web
and functions of ecosystem, energy flow in an ecosystem, ecological
pyramid)
 Concept of an Ecosystem

• Living organisms cannot live isolated from their non-living environment because the latter
provides materials and energy for the survival of the former i.e. there is interaction between a
biotic community and its environment to produce a stable system; a natural self-sufficient
unit which is known as an ecosystem. Ecosystem are the parts of nature where living
orgaisms interact among themselves and with their physical environment.
• The term ‘ecosystem’ was coined by A.G. Tansley, an English botanist, in 1935.
• An ecosystem is the structural and functional unit of ecology (nature) encompassing
complex interaction between its biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) components.
• For example- a pond is a good example of ecosystem. A pond, lake, desert, grassland,
meadow, forest etc. are common examples of ecosystems.
 Environment and Ecosystem
• Environment and ecosystem structures are different in focus but closely related.
The environment represents the total, broad surroundings (physical/biological)
of an organism, while an ecosystem is a specific functional, structural unit
within that environment, characterized by interaction between biotic (living) and
abiotic (non-living) components.
• Key Differences in Structure:
• Environment: Represents the overall, often changing, backdrop (air, water,
climate) that influences survival. It is the context, often studied as a whole.
• Ecosystem: Defines a specific, organized community where organisms
(producers, consumers, decomposers) interact with their specific habitat, often
featuring stable, self-regulating cycles (energy flow, nutrient cycling).
• Relationship:
• Components: Both consist of living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) elements.
• Scope: The environment is the broad, encompassing surroundings, while an
ecosystem is a smaller, functional unit within it.
• Stability: Ecosystems have stable internal structures (food webs) that persist
over time, whereas the environment is more general.
• Essentially, an environment is the surroundings, and an ecosystem is the
functional interaction between that environment and its inhabitants.
 Components of Ecosystem
• The components of the ecosystem contain various things and sets of conditions that influence
the life of a living organism.
• There are two components of ecosystem- inter-related in various ways, individually as well
as collectively.

1. Biotic Components (Living)

2. Abiotic Components (Non-Living)
 1. Biotic Components of Environment
• Biotic components of our environment include all the living organisms present in the
ecosystem and are interconnected with one another by various mechanisms.
• Based on the food they consume, the different living organisms can be categorized into three
groups such as producers, consumers, and decomposers.
(a)Producers The green plants have chlorophyll with the help of which they trap solar energy
and change it into chemical energy of carbohydrates using simple inorganic compounds namely
water and carbon dioxide. This process is known as photosynthesis. As the green plants
manufacture their own food they are known as Autotrophs (i.e. auto = self, trophos = feeder).
The chemical energy stored by the producers is utilised partly by the producers for their own
growth and survival and the remaining is stored in the plant parts for their future use.
• All the green plants and certain blue algae are part of producers because they produce food by
photosynthesis. They can absorb radiant energy from the sun and produce carbohydrates.
• They are the source of nutrition for the rest of the ecosystem. They can take carbon
dioxide for food production and release oxygen into our environment.
(b)Consumers
The animals lack chlorophyll and are unable to synthesise their own food. Therefore, they
depend on the producers for their nutritional requirement and can consume food from the
producers. They are known as heterotrophs (i.e. heteros = other, trophos = feeder)
They can be further subdivided into three categories such as herbivores, carnivores, and
omnivores.
(a)Herbivores
They are primary or first-order consumers that feed directly from producers (plants). They are
called herbivores. Examples of herbivores are grazing animals such as zebra, goats, horses,
sheep, etc.
(b)Carnivores
Carnivores are animals whose food and energy requirements derive from other animals
through hunting or scavenging. The carnivores (lions, hawks, wolves) that feed from
herbivores are called second-order consumers or predators. Examples are cats, foxes, snakes
etc.
(c) Tertiary Consumers or Third Order Consumers:
• These are the large carnivores which feed on the secondary consumers.
Example are Wolves.

(d) Quaternary Consumers or Fourth Order Consumers or Omnivores:

• These are the largest carnivores which feed on both plants and animals and are not eaten up
by any other animal. Examples are lions and tigers.
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• Decomposers are microorganisms that feed on decaying and dead organic
matter. The breakdown of dead animals and plants can release various
substances that are used by other members of our environment.
• Decomposers can decompose waste from our environment and reduce
environmental pollution. They help in recycling materials, cleaning waste, and
creating space for the growth of new organisms. If these organisms are
removed from any ecosystem, recycling of nutrients will stop. Therefore, the
balance of the ecosystem will be lost.
 2. Abiotic Components (Nonliving)

The abiotic component can be grouped into following categories:-

(a) Climatic Factors: Which include rain, temperature, light, wind, humidity etc.

(b) Edaphic Factors: Edaphic factors are the physical, chemical, and biological properties of
soil that directly influence the distribution, growth, and diversity of plants and soil organisms.
These soil-related conditions, derived from parent material, climate, and organisms, act as key
ecological determinants for ecosystem structure and productivity. Which include soil,
pH(measures a substance's acidity or alkalinity), topography(the shape, size, and arrangement
of geographical features of the Earth's surface in a given location), minerals etc.
 Function of Ecosystem
The functions of the ecosystem are as follows:
1. It regulates the essential ecological processes, supports life systems and
renders stability.
2. It is also responsible for the cycling of nutrients between biotic and abiotic
components.
3. It maintains a balance among the various trophic levels(the hierarchical
positions organisms occupy in a food chain or food web based on their nutritional
source and feeding behavior) in the ecosystem.
4. It cycles the minerals through the biosphere.
5. The abiotic components help in the synthesis of organic components that
involves the exchange of energy.
 Important Ecological Concepts

(1)Food Chain
• Food chains is the functional property of ecosystems which make them dynamic. The biotic
and abiotic components of an ecosystem are linked through them.
• The sun is the ultimate source of energy on earth. It provides the energy required for all
plant life. The plants utilise this energy for the process of photosynthesis, which is used to
synthesise their food.
• During this biological process, light energy is converted into chemical energy and is passed
on through successive levels. The flow of energy from a producer, to a consumer and
eventually, to an apex predator or a detritivores is called the food chain.
• Dead and decaying matter, along with organic debris, is broken down into its constituents
by scavengers. The reducers then absorb these constituents. After gaining the energy, the
reducers liberate molecules to the environment, which can be utilised again by the
producers.
• The transfer of food energy from the producers, through a series of organisms
(herbivores to carnivores to decomposers) with repeated eating and being
eaten, is known as food chain.
• In nature, basically two types of food chains are recognized – grazing food
chain and detritus food chain.
(i)Grazing food chains
(ii) Detritus food chains
 (i)Grazing food chains
• It starts from the green plants that make food for herbivores and herbivores in
turn for the carnivores. Ecosystems with such type of food chain are directly
dependent on an influx of solar radiation.
• This type of chain thus depends on autotrophic energy capture and the
movement of this captured energy to herbivores. Most of the ecosystems in
nature follow this type of food chain.
• A simple grazing food chain (GFC) is depicted below:
• the grasses →rabbit →Fox sequences are the examples, of grazing food chain.
 (ii) Detritus food chains
• Detritus food chains start from the dead organic matter to the detritivore organisms which in
turn make food for protozoan to carnivores etc. The detritus food chain (DFC) begins with
dead organic matter. It is made up of decomposers which are heterotrophic organisms, mainly
fungi and bacteria. They meet their energy and nutrient requirements by degrading dead
organic matter or detritus. These are also known as saprotrophs (sapro: to decompose).
Decomposers secrete digestive enzymes that breakdown dead and waste materials into
simple, inorganic materials, which are subsequently absorbed by them.
 2. Food Web
• Simple food chains are very rare in nature because each organism may obtain food from
more than a trophic level. Thus, in an ecosystem, the various food chains are interconnected
to each other to form a network called food web. A food web illustrates all possible transfers
of energy and nutrient among the organisms in an ecosystem, whereas food chain traces only
one pathway of food. Food webs are very important in maintaining the stability of an
ecosystem.
• Food web is a network of interconnected food chains. It comprises all the food chains within
a single ecosystem. It helps in understanding that plants lay the foundation of all the food
chains. In a marine environment, phytoplankton forms the primary producer.
Differences between food chain and food web
 Functions of an Ecosystem
• Ecosystem function is the capacity of natural processes and components to
provide goods and services that satisfy human needs, either directly or
indirectly. Ecosystem functions are subset of ecological processes and
ecosystem structures. Each function is the result of the natural processes of the
total ecological sub-system of which it is a part. Natural processes, in turn, are
the result of complex interactions between biotic (living organisms) and abiotic
(chemical and physical) components of ecosystems through the universal
driving forces of matter and energy.
There are four primary groups of ecosystem functions
(1) Regulatory functions,
(2) Habitat functions,
(3) Production functions and
(4) Information functions
 (1) Regulatory functions
This group of functions relates to the capacity of natural and semi-natural
ecosystems to regulate essential ecological processes and life support systems
through bio-geochemical cycles and other biospheric processes. In addition to
maintaining the ecosystem (and biosphere health), these regulatory functions
provide many services that have direct and indirect benefits to humans (i.e.,clean
air, water and soil, and biological control services).
(2) Habitat functions
Natural ecosystems provide refuge and a reproduction habitat to wild plants and
animals and thereby contribute to the conservation of biological and genetic
diversity and the evolutionary process.
(3) Production functions
• Photosynthesis and nutrient uptake by autotrophs converts energy, carbon dioxide, water and
nutrients into a wide variety of carbohydrate structures which are then used by secondary
producers to create an even larger variety of living biomass. This broad diversity in
carbohydrate structures provides many ecosystem goods for human consumption, ranging
from food and raw materials to energy resources and genetic material.

(4) Information functions

• Since most of human evolution took place within the context of an undomesticated habitat,
natural ecosystems contribute to the maintenance of human health by providing opportunities
for reflection, spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, recreation and aesthetic
experience.
 Energy and Cycles of Energy

• Biogeochemical cycles and virtually all other processes on Earth are drive by
energy from the sun. The sun acts as a blackbody radiator with an effective
surface temperature of 5780 K (Celsius degrees above absolute zero). It
transmits energy to earth as electromagnetic radiation. The maximum energy
flux of the incoming solar energy is at a wavelength of about 500 nanometers,
which is in the visible region of the spectrum. A 1 square meter area
perpendicular to the line of solar flux at the top of the atmosphere receives
energy at a rate of 1,340 watts, sufficient, for example, to power an electric
iron. This is called solar flux.
• Energy in natural systems is transferred by heat, which is the form of energy
that flows between two bodies as a result of their difference in temperature, or
by work, which is transfer of energy that does not depend upon a temperature
difference, as governed by the laws of thermodynamics. The first law of
thermodynamics states that, although energy may be transferred or
transformed, it is conserved and is not lost. Chemical energy in the food
ingested by organisms is converted by metabolic processes to work or heat that
can be utilized by the organisms, but there is no net gain or loss of energy
overall. The second law of thermodynamics describes the tendency toward
disorder in natural systems. It demonstrates that each time energy is
transformed; some is lost in the sense that it cannot be utilized for work, so
only a fraction of the energy that organisms derive from metabolizing food can
be converted to work; the rest is dissipated as heat.
 ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS
• Ecological pyramids are the graphical representations of trophic levels in an ecosystem. The
base of each pyramid represents the producers or the first trophic level while the apex
represents tertiary or top level consumer. The three ecological pyramids that are usually
studied are (a) pyramid of number; (b) pyramid of biomass and (c) pyramid of energy.
(a) Pyramid of number: In this type of ecological pyramid, the number of organisms in each
trophic level is considered as a level in the pyramid. The pyramid of numbers is usually upright
except for some situations like that of the detritus food chain, where many organisms feed on
one dead plant or animal.
(b) Pyramid of biomass: In this particular type of ecological pyramid, each level takes into
account the amount of biomass produced by each trophic level. The pyramid of biomass is also
upright except for that observed in oceans where large numbers of zooplanktons(tiny, drifting
aquatic animals, ranging from microscopic organisms to larger creatures like jellyfish) depend
on a relatively smaller number of phytoplanktons(microscopic, plant-like organisms algae,
bacteria).
(3) Pyramid of energy: Pyramid of energy is the only type of ecological pyramid, which is
always upright as the energy flow in a food chain is always unidirectional. Also, with every
increasing trophic level, some energy is lost into the environment.

• Ecosystem homeostasis :Ecosystem homeostasis is equilibrium, or a balance of the

organisms in an ecosystem. This means the populations of species in the ecosystem are
relatively stable. Over time, these populations will change, but in the short term, they should
move up and down in cycles around an average value.
 ECOSYSTEM RESTORATION
• Ecological restoration is the process of reclaiming habitat and ecosystem
functions by restoring the lands and waters on which plants and animals
depend.
• Ecological restoration seeks to initiate or accelerate ecosystem recovery
following damage, degradation, or destruction. It is a corrective step that
involves eliminating or modifying causes of ecological degradation and re-
establishing the natural processes — like natural fires, floods, or predator-prey
relationships — that sustain and renew ecosystems over time.
• Restoration practitioners do not carry out the actual work of ecosystem
recovery. Rather, they create the conditions needed for recovery so the plants,
animals, and microorganisms can carry out the work of recovery themselves.
Assisting recovery can be as simple as removing an invasive species or
reintroducing a lost species or a lost function (like fire); or as complex as
altering landforms, planting vegetation, changing the hydrology, and
reintroducing wildlife.
• The goal of ecological restoration is to return a degraded ecosystem to its
historic trajectory, not its historic condition. The ecosystem may not
necessarily recover to its former state since contemporary ecological realities,
including global climate change, may cause it to develop along an altered
trajectory, just as these same realities may have changed the trajectory of
nearby undisturbed ecosystems. History plays an important role in restoration,
but contemporary conditions must also be taken into consideration.