ECOSYSTEM

NEET UG Biology — Ecology

Structure & Function • Productivity • Decomposition • Energy Flow • Ecological Pyramids
Mind Map
ECOSYSTEM — MIND MAP
A functional unit of nature where organisms interact with each other and with the physical environment —
studied through structure, productivity, decomposition, energy flow & ecological pyramids

TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEM AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM

Land-based communities; biotic ↔ abiotic interaction Water-based communities; marine + freshwater
e.g. Forests (taiga, tundra, temperate, tropical e.g. Pond, Lake, Wetland, River, Estuary
rainforest), Grassland, Desert

Components: Abiotic (Climatic — rain, temp, light, wind; Edaphic — soil, pH, minerals, topography) + Biotic
(Producers → Consumers → Decomposers)
Functions as unit through: Productivity • Decomposition • Energy Flow • Ecological Pyramids
1. Ecosystem — Introduction & Types
• Definition: an ecosystem is a functional unit of nature where living organisms interact among themselves and with the
surrounding physical environment.
• Terrestrial ecosystem: a land-based community of organisms and the interaction between biotic and abiotic components
in a given area.
◦ Examples — Forests (taiga, tundra, temperate deciduous, tropical rainforest), Grassland, Desert
• Aquatic ecosystem: exists in water; contains communities of organisms dependent on each other and their surroundings.
◦ Two main categories — Marine ecosystems and Freshwater ecosystems
◦ Examples — Pond, lake, wetland, river, estuary

ℹ Man-made ecosystems
Crop fields and aquariums are considered man-made ecosystems. An ecosystem is always “open” because
material moves from one ecosystem to another.

2. Ecosystem — Structure and Function

• Components of an ecosystem are divided into Abiotic Factors and Biotic Factors.
◦ Abiotic Factors — Climatic Factor (e.g. rain, temperature, light, wind) and Edaphic Factors (e.g. soil, pH, minerals,
topography)
◦ Biotic Factors — Producers (e.g. green plants, autotrophs), Consumers (primary, secondary, tertiary, quaternary
heterotrophs), Decomposers (e.g. bacteria & fungi, saprotrophs)

Fig 1: Components of an ecosystem — abiotic and biotic factors

💡 Ecosystem components
“CE-PCD” — Climatic + Edaphic (abiotic); Producers, Consumers, Decomposers (biotic). Trick: “Climate
& Earth give a place to live; Plants, Consumers and Decomposers make it live.”

• Interaction of biotic and abiotic components results in a physical structure characteristic of each ecosystem type.
• Stratification: refers to the vertical distribution of different species occupying different levels.
◦ In a forest: trees occupy the topmost vertical strata (emergent/canopy layer), while shrubs, herbs and grasses occupy
the second and bottom layers respectively (understory, shrub, ground layers).
Fig 2: Stratification — vertical layers of a forest ecosystem
3. Productivity
ℹ Worked example — Pond ecosystem
A pond is a self-sustainable aquatic ecosystem exhibiting all ecosystem functions: productivity,
decomposition, energy flow, nutrient cycling.
Autotrophs (phytoplankton, algae, floating/submerged/marginal plants) convert inorganic → organic matter
using solar energy.
Heterotrophs (zooplankton) consume autotrophs as primary consumers.
Decomposition/mineralization by fungi, bacteria & flagellates releases nutrients for reuse.
Energy movement is unidirectional, with dissipation/loss as heat at each step.

• Productivity: the rate at which energy is added to the bodies of an organism’s group (e.g. primary producers) in the
form of biomass.
• Primary productivity: amount of biomass/organic matter produced per unit area over time by plants during
photosynthesis; expressed as weight (g m⁻²) or energy (kcal m⁻²), and as a rate: g m⁻² yr⁻¹ or kcal m ⁻² yr ⁻¹.
◦ Depends on plant species, nutrient availability and photosynthetic capacity; limiting factor is carbon (as CO₂).
◦ Tropical rainforest has the highest productivity; desert and deep oceans are the least productive.

Fig 3: Types of productivity

• Gross Primary Productivity (GPP): rate of production of organic matter during photosynthesis.
• Net Primary Productivity (NPP): biomass available for consumption by heterotrophs (herbivores & decomposers) after
respiration losses.
• Secondary productivity: rate of formation of new organic matter by consumers.

Fig 4: NPP = GPP − R (respiration)

💡 NPP formula
NPP = GPP − R (Net = Gross minus Respiration — “What's left after the plant pays its energy bill.”)

ℹ Global productivity figures

~170 billion tons (dry weight) of organic matter = net primary productivity of the whole biosphere
annually.
Of this, 55 billion tons comes from oceans — despite oceans covering ~70% of Earth's surface; the
remainder is from land.
World's oceans are the largest ecosystem on Earth, supporting >3 billion species.
Temperature, Precipitation, Light and Nutrients limit primary productivity in both terrestrial and aquatic
ecosystems.
4. Decomposition
• Decomposition: breakdown of complex organic matter into inorganic substances (CO₂, water, nutrients), carried out by
decomposers (also called reducers or micro-consumers).
• Earthworms are called the “farmer’s friend” — they help break down organic matter and loosen the soil.
• If decomposers are removed from an ecosystem, mineral cycling stops.
• Detritus: raw material for decomposition — dead remains of plant parts (leaves, flowers, bark) and animal remains
including fecal matter.
• Litter: freshly fallen plant and animal matter.

Steps in the process of decomposition

• Fragmentation: breakdown of detritus into smaller particles by detritivores (e.g. earthworms).
• Leaching: nutrient release into water/soil; water-soluble inorganic nutrients seep down the soil horizon and get
precipitated as unavailable salts.
• Catabolism: detritus degraded into simpler organic substances by bacterial and fungal enzymes.
• Humification: formation of humus — a dark (brown to black), amorphous substance, highly resistant to microbial
action, decomposing very slowly.
◦ Humus is ~60% carbon, 6% nitrogen, with small amounts of sulphur and phosphorous; it is colloidal and acts as a
nutrient reservoir, increasing water-holding capacity of soil.
• Mineralization: humus further degraded by microbes, releasing inorganic nutrients — the last step; carried out by
saprophytic bacteria and fungi.

💡 Steps of decomposition
“FLCHM” — Fragmentation, Leaching, Catabolism, Humification, Mineralization. Trick: “Frogs Like
Cold, Humid Mornings.”

Fig 5: The decomposition cycle

• Decomposition requires oxygen — O₂ is consumed and CO₂ is released.

• Rate of decomposition is controlled by chemical composition of detritus and climatic factors:
◦ Slower if detritus is rich in lignin & chitin; quicker if rich in nitrogen & water-soluble compounds (sugars).
◦ Temperature and soil moisture are the most important climatic factors, acting via soil microbe activity.
◦ Warm & moist conditions favour decomposition; anaerobic conditions and low temperature inhibit it, causing
organic material buildup.
◦ Fallen logs decompose slowly due to low moisture content despite high cellulose; the upper soil layer decomposes
fastest due to favourable conditions.
5. Energy Flow
• Energy flow: the flow of energy within an ecosystem through living organisms.
• Sun is the ultimate energy source for all ecosystems except deep-sea hydrothermal ecosystems (no sunlight reaches there
— animals there are detritivores).
• Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR): the 400–700 nm wavelength band used in photosynthesis; accounts for
<50% of incident solar radiation.
◦ 98–99% of solar energy reaching Earth is reflected or absorbed and converted to heat; only 2–10% of PAR is
captured by plants and photosynthetic bacteria (autotrophs) to make food.
• Chemosynthetic bacteria are autotrophic but do NOT require sunlight — they get energy by oxidizing inorganic
substances.

Two laws of thermodynamics govern energy flow

• First law: energy can’t be created or destroyed, only transformed. Energy enters as solar radiation, is conserved, and is
lost as heat from organisms.
• Second law: every energy exchange increases entropy of the universe — conversion is never 100% efficient; some
energy is always lost as heat.

💡 Laws of thermodynamics in ecosystems

“Conserve, then Convert — but always lose a bit.” 1st Law = conservation; 2nd Law = inevitable heat loss
(entropy ↑).

• Ecosystem stability depends on interchange between producers and consumers — high interactivity makes the ecosystem
more independent of outside factors.

Food Chain
• Food chain: the order of events where one organism is consumed by another, which is then consumed by a larger
organism; each level is a trophic level.
• Producers (phytoplankton, grass, trees) always occupy the first trophic level — they trap light energy and convert it to
chemical energy via photosynthesis; they need CO₂ and release O₂.
• Herbivores/primary consumers occupy the second trophic level (e.g. zooplankton, grasshopper, rabbit, cow).
• Carnivores/secondary consumers (birds, fishes, wolf) occupy the third trophic level and are also called first-order
consumers (they eat herbivores directly).
• Top/tertiary carnivores (man, lion, vulture) occupy the fourth trophic level.
• Same organism, multiple trophic levels: humans (omnivores) occupy both 3rd & 4th levels; sparrow is a primary
consumer (eating seeds/fruit) or secondary consumer (eating insects/worms); insectivorous plants occupy both 1st and
3rd trophic levels.
• Removing carnivores from a food chain can increase the herbivore population.

💡 Trophic level order

“PPST” — Producer → Primary consumer → Secondary consumer → Tertiary consumer. Trick: “Please
Pass Salt Today.”

• Two types of food chain: Grazing Food Chain (GFC) and Detritus Food Chain (DFC).
 Fig 6: Grazing food chain vs Detritus food chain

• Grazing Food Chain (GFC): starts from a producer/plant — lowest trophic level acquires energy via photosynthesis,
then passes to primary → secondary → tertiary consumers.
◦ Directly dependent on the flow of solar energy. Example: Plant → Deer → Lion; also Plant → Caterpillar →
Sparrow → Eagle.
◦ When the top consumer dies, decomposers break the body into nutrients, which (with solar energy & water) help
plants grow again.
• Detritus Food Chain (DFC): begins with dead organic matter, decomposed by heterotrophic decomposers (fungi &
bacteria, i.e. saprotrophs) that secrete digestive enzymes.
◦ Rarely dependent on solar energy. Example: Organic matter from dead remains → Bacteria → Snail. Decomposers
are later eaten by predators.
• In the aquatic food system, the grazing food chain is the major conduit of energy flow; in terrestrial ecosystems, a larger
fraction of energy flows through the detritus food chain than the grazing food chain (which is usually smaller).
• DFC and GFC connect: some DFC organisms are prey to GFC animals, and some animals (cockroaches, crows) are
omnivores connecting both.

💡 Two food chain types

“Grass Grows, Dead Decays” — GFC starts with living producers; DFC starts with dead organic matter.

• Primary consumers: directly feed on producers/plants (herbivores/first-order consumers) — insects, birds, mammals
(terrestrial); molluscs (aquatic).
• Secondary consumers (carnivores/primary carnivores): feed on primary consumers.
• Tertiary consumers (secondary carnivores): feed on secondary consumers.
• Producers >> consumers in number, because producers grow faster, reproduce any time of year, and live longer than
primary consumers (which have a specific breeding season).

Fig 7: Food chains of different lengths — 3, 4, and 5 trophic levels

Food Web
• Food web: the natural interconnection between different food chains; organisms are dependent on each other,
maintaining balance in the ecosystem.
• Some organisms feed on/are fed on by more than one trophic level (e.g. opossum shrimp eats both primary producers
and primary consumers) — a food web gives a more accurate picture than a single food chain.

Fig 8: Food chain (single pathway) vs Food web (multiple pathways)

ℹ Food chain vs Food web — key differences

Energy flow: food chain = linear pathway; food web = multiple pathways.
Predator access: in a food chain, a higher-level organism feeds on one particular lower-level organism; in a
food web it has access to more than one member of the lower trophic level.
Adaptability: food chains have no effect on adaptability/competitiveness; food webs can reduce or improve
it among organisms.
Food webs are more stable than food chains because food supply never truly ends and predators can switch
prey.

• Length of a food chain is generally limited due to energy transfer efficiency.

• 10 per cent law: only ~10% of energy is transferred from one trophic level to the next; the rest is lost (mostly as heat).
◦ Example: 40,000 kcal m⁻² yr⁻¹ stored by producers → 4,000 to primary consumers → 400 to secondary consumers
→ 40 to tertiary consumers → 4 kcal m⁻² yr⁻¹ to apex predators.
• Maximum energy is always stored at the producer level; successive higher trophic levels have fewer members since they
depend on food availability below them.
• Only 4 to 5 trophic levels usually exist in a food chain because usable energy runs out; nutrient availability also limits
trophic levels in a stable ecosystem.

Fig 9: Progressive loss of energy through the 10 per cent law

💡 10 per cent law
“One in Ten Moves On” — only ~10% of energy passes to the next trophic level; ~90% is lost, mostly as
heat.

• Major reasons for inefficient energy transfer:

◦ Heat loss at each trophic level due to cellular respiration.
◦ Organisms cannot digest the whole organic molecule — undigested matter is excreted as faeces.
◦ Not all organisms of a trophic level get eaten — some die without being eaten.
• Excreta and uneaten organisms become food for decomposers, whose released nutrients are taken up by producers again
— no energy truly “disappears” from an ecosystem.

💡 Reasons for energy loss

“H-E-E” — Heat (respiration), Egestion (faeces), Expired (organisms dying uneaten).

• Standing crop: total dried biomass of living material at a given time in an ecosystem, measured as biomass (mass of
living organisms/number in a unit area); indicates ecosystem productivity.
• Biomass measured as dry weight is more accurate than fresh weight — dry weight stays constant, while fresh weight
varies with seasonal moisture content.
6. Ecological Pyramids
• Ecological pyramid: graphical representation of the level of energy, biomass, or productivity at each trophic level of an
ecosystem.
• Base = producers/first trophic level; apex/top = tertiary or top-level consumers.
• Applicable only to simple food chains, which rarely occur naturally (they don't accommodate food webs).
• Three types: Pyramid of Number, Pyramid of Biomass, Pyramid of Energy.

💡 Three types of ecological pyramids

“NBE” — Number, Biomass, Energy. Trick: “Never Bite Elephants.”

Pyramid of Number
• Shows the number of individual organisms at each trophic level.
• Upright in both pond and grassland ecosystems, but not always upright in land ecosystems.

Fig 10: Pyramid of numbers in a grassland ecosystem

• Inverted pyramid of number: seen where the community has fewer producers supporting a larger number of smaller
consumers (e.g. one large tree supporting many insects, which support fewer birds).
• Forest ecosystem pyramid of number is partially upright/spindle-shaped: large trees (few) form the base; herbivores
(primary consumers) are fewer than producers, then numbers fall further at each successive level.

Fig 11: Pyramid of number in a forest ecosystem (spindle-shaped)

Pyramid of Biomass
• Represents the living material (biomass) produced at each trophic level; can be upright or inverted.
• Upright pyramid of biomass: seen in majority of land ecosystems — producers (autotrophs) have maximum biomass at
the base, decreasing through primary, secondary, up to tertiary carnivores (least biomass).
 Fig 12: Upright pyramid of biomass in a terrestrial ecosystem

• Inverted pyramid of biomass: seen in aquatic ecosystems — producers are phytoplankton that grow/reproduce very
fast with a short lifespan, so their standing biomass is small even though consumer (zooplankton) biomass is larger.

Fig 13: Inverted pyramid of biomass — small phytoplankton crop supports a larger zooplankton crop

Fig 14: Pyramid of biomass showing a sharp decrease at higher trophic levels (aquatic ecosystem)

• Zooplanktons live deep away from sunlight and swim up to feed on phytoplankton at night; phytoplanktons reproduce
and die quickly, giving them a shorter lifespan.
• Biomass depends on the reproductive potential and survival of organisms. Note: the pyramid of NUMBER is still upright
in aquatic ecosystems (producers, i.e. phytoplankton, are most numerous).

Pyramid of Energy
• Always upright, and can never be inverted — energy is lost as heat at every trophic level transfer, so usable energy
always decreases going up.
• Each bar represents the amount of energy present at that trophic level in a given time/annually per unit area.
• Best describes the efficiency of an ecosystem, since it shows how energy passes from one trophic level to another.
 Fig 15: Pyramid of energy — always upright

💡 Pyramid of energy
“E-N-I” — Energy pyramid is Never Inverted. Trick: energy is always lost as heat going up, so the base is
always biggest.

Limitations of ecological pyramids

• Doesn’t account for a species belonging to two or more trophic levels at once (e.g. a sparrow eating seeds = primary
consumer; eating insects = secondary consumer).
• Assumes a simple food chain, which almost never exists in nature — doesn’t accommodate a food web.
• Saprophytes/decomposers, despite their major role in the food chain, are not given a place in any trophic level of the
pyramid.
Master Mnemonics & Memory Aids
Topic Key Points Mnemonic / Trick

Ecosystem components Abiotic: Climatic + Edaphic | Biotic: Producers, “CE” abiotic + “PCD” biotic
Consumers, Decomposers — “Come Eat, Please
Consume Dessert”

Decomposition steps Fragmentation → Leaching → Catabolism → “FLC HM” — “Frogs Like

Humification → Mineralization Cold, Humid Mornings”

Trophic levels Producer → Primary → Secondary → Tertiary “PPST” — “Please Pass Salt
consumer Today”

Two types of food chain Grazing Food Chain (GFC) starts from “Grass Grows, Dead Decays”
producers; Detritus Food Chain (DFC) starts
from dead matter

Laws of thermodynamics 1st: energy conserved, transformed not destroyed “Conserve then Convert, but
in energy flow | 2nd: every transfer loses some energy as heat always lose a bit”
(entropy ↑)

10 per cent law Only ~10% of energy passes to the next trophic “One in Ten Moves On”
level; ~90% lost as heat/unused

3 types of ecological Number, Biomass, Energy “NBE” — “Never Bite

pyramids Elephants”

Pyramid of energy Always upright, never inverted “Energy Never Inverts” (E-N-
I)

Inverted pyramids Number: e.g. one tree, many insects | Biomass: “Tiny Tree, Tons of Bugs” /
aquatic ecosystem (phytoplankton → “Small Start, Big Guest”
zooplankton) (aquatic biomass)

Reasons for inefficient Heat loss (respiration) + Egestion (faeces) + “HEat, Excreta, Expired” (H-
energy transfer Organisms dying uneaten E-E)

Quick-fire numbers to remember

• PAR (photosynthetically active radiation): wavelength 400–700 nm, <50% of incident solar radiation
• Only 2–10% of PAR is captured by plants/photosynthetic bacteria
• 10 per cent law: ~10% of energy transferred to each successive trophic level
• Global NPP ≈ 170 billion tons (dry weight) annually; oceans contribute 55 billion tons despite covering ~70% of Earth's
surface
• Humus composition: ~60% carbon, 6% nitrogen, small amounts of sulphur & phosphorous
• Usually only 4–5 trophic levels exist in a food chain
• Ocean ecosystem supports >3 billion species — the largest ecosystem on Earth