KAUMARAM SUSHILA INTERNATIONAL RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL

GRADE :- 8 IGCSE
th
Sub:- Biology CHAPTER :- UNIT 4 notes
Ecosystems
A variety of ecosystems are spread across the world, each with distinctive interacting characteristics and
components. They range from small (eg a freshwater pond) to global (eg the desert biome).

Definitions

The following common terms can be used to describe living things in their environment:

 environment - all the conditions that surround a living organism

 habitat - the place where an organism lives
 population - all the members of a single species that live in a habitat
 community - all the populations of different organisms that live together in a habitat
 ecosystem - a community and the habitat in which it lives

What is an ecosystem?

An ecosystem is a natural environment and includes the flora (plants) and fauna (animals) that live and
interact within that environment. Flora, fauna and bacteria are the biotic or living components of the
ecosystem. Ecosystems are dependent on the following abiotic or non-living components:

 climate - the temperature and amount of rainfall are very important in determining which species can
survive in the ecosystem
 soil - the soil type is important as this provides nutrients that will support different plants
 water - the amount of water available in an ecosystem will determine what plants and animals can be
supported
The biotic parts of the ecosystem have a complex relationship with the abiotic components - changing
one will lead to a change in the other.
Features of a freshwater pond ecosystem

The freshwater pond ecosystem is very common in the UK.

The interactions between the living and non-living components of the ecosystem are important.

The freshwater pond ecosystem consists of the following:

1. Pond bottom - there is very little oxygen or light at the bottom of the
pond. Decomposers and scavengers live here where they feed on dead material, eg water worms
and rat-tailed maggots.
2. Mid water - fish are the main predators here. Food is found on the pond bottom or the pond
surface. Animals here breathe through their skin or gills, eg stickleback fish, water fleas and
dragonfly nymphs.
3. Pond surface - animals here breathe through their gills, skin or lungs. There is plenty of oxygen
and light here. Animals found here include ducks, water boatmen, midge larvae and tadpoles.
4. Pond margin - plants provide a sheltered habitat for insects and smalls animals such as frogs.
There is lots of light and oxygen so plants such as marsh marigold thrive.
5. Above the pond surface - birds such as kingfishers and insects like dragonflies are common here.

Freshwater pond food chain and food web

The freshwater pond ecosystem is finely balanced because of the food chain and the food web.

The food chain

A food chain shows how each living thing gets food. In a food chain, energy and nutrients are passed
from one organism to the next. The producer provides the basic source of food which other organisms,
the consumers, then feed on.

The food web

This includes all of the connections between producers and consumers in an ecosystem. The food web
shows how interconnected all of the different organisms are.
 Changes to ecosystems

Ecosystems are very sensitive to change. The living and non-living components of the ecosystem can
be altered by either natural factors or human management.

Changes to the ecosystem caused by natural factors include:

 drought
 flood
 fire
 disease
Changes to the ecosystem caused by human management include:

 introducing more fish (fish stocking)

 altering the drainage of the land which may influence the amount of water
 changing the pH level of the water
 altering the nutrient levels of the water if fertilisers are leached into the water resulting in eutrophication

Biomes - the global distribution of ecosystems

The distribution of large-scale ecosystems (biomes) is determined by climate. Latitude, air pressure and
winds are important factors that determine the climate of a place.

Latitude

Latitude is one of the most important factors in determining global climate patterns.

In the lower latitudes, around the Equator, temperatures are the highest. In the higher latitudes, such as
the polar regions of the world, temperatures are lowest. Temperatures drop the further an area is from
the equator due to the curvature of the earth.

In areas around the equator, sunlight has a smaller area of atmosphere to pass through, and the sun’s
rays are concentrated in a smaller area.

In areas closer to the poles, sunlight has a larger area of atmosphere to pass through and the sun is at a
lower angle in the sky. As a result, more energy is lost and temperatures are cooler.

High and low air pressure

Differences in temperature lead to variations in air pressure around the world. Low-pressure areas are
created when air rises. This is called low pressure because the weight of the air above the Earth's
surface is lower than average. High-pressure areas are created when air sinks. This is called high
pressure because the weight of the air is above average when it sinks to the Earth's surface.

Low-pressure areas are associated with cloud and precipitation (rainfall) because:

1. as the air rises it cools, condenses and forms clouds

2. the water droplets in the clouds increase in size
3. they eventually become too heavy to be held and fall as precipitation
The air above the Equator is very hot and rises, creating an area of low pressure. The Equator
experiences high amounts of rainfall due to this rising air resulting in a warm and wet equatorial climate
(eg Amazon and Congo tropical rainforests).

High-pressure areas are associated with dry, warm and settled weather conditions. This is because
sinking air does not result in precipitation.

Winds

The air travels in the upper atmosphere and sinks at approximately 30° north and 30° south of the
Equator. When the air sinks it creates an area of high pressure.

These high-pressure areas experience very dry and warm conditions resulting in a hot desert climate
(eg the Sahara and Kalahari deserts). Winds blow from areas of high to low pressure, which transfers
the air from where it is sinking to where it is rising. This continual transfer of wind maintains the pressure
belts of high and low pressure which creates different global climatic zones.

Biomes - location of global ecosystems

The map shows the distribution of the global ecosystems or biomes

Characteristics of biomes
 Tundra - found near the North and South poles. Very few plants and animals can survive here.
 Taiga (coniferous forest) - found in Scandinavia, Russia and Canada. Evergreen trees thrive in this
cool temperate climate.
 Temperate deciduous forest - found across Europe and in the USA. These trees lose their leaves
every year and thrive in mild and wet conditions known as a temperate maritime climate.
 Temperate grassland - found in Hungary, South Africa, Argentina and the USA. Consists of grass and
trees that thrive in a temperate continental climate of moderate rainfall and mild conditions.
 Chaparral or evergreen hardwood (Mediterranean) - found around the Mediterranean Sea, around
Perth and Melbourne in Australia and California in the USA.
 Desert - found near the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. Conditions here are very hot and dry. Plants
and animals are specially adapted to survive in the harsh conditions.
 Tropical rainforest - found near the Equator. The climate is hot and humid and many different species
can be found here.
 Savanna grassland - found mainly in central Africa, southern India, northern Australia and central
South America. Long grasses and a few scattered trees are found in these hot and dry conditions.
Ecosystems change gradually between the Equator and the Poles.

Biodiversity

Biodiversity is a measure of the variety of different species living in a habitat. The greater the number of
different species in a habitat, the greater its biodiversity.

Food chains

A food chain shows what eats what in a particular habitat. It shows the flow of energy and materials from
one organism to the next, beginning with a producer.

In the example, grass seeds are eaten by voles, and voles are eaten by barn owls. The arrows between
each organism in the chain always point in the direction of energy flow from the food to the feeder.

The Sun is the ultimate source of energy for most communities of living things. Green plants are usually
the producers in a food chain.

Producers are organisms that make their own organic nutrients (food) - usually using energy from
sunlight. Green plants make their food by photosynthesis. The other organisms in a food chain
are consumers, because they all get their energy by consuming other organisms.
 Organism How it gets its energy

Consumer Feeding on other organisms

Primary consumer Eating plants

Secondary
Eating primary consumers
consumer

Tertiary consumer Eating secondary consumers

Herbivore Eating plants

Carnivore Eating other animals

Feeding on dead and decaying organisms, and on the undigested parts of plant and
Decomposer
animal matter in faeces

Food webs

A food web is a network of interconnected food chains. It shows the energy flow through part of
an ecosystem. The diagram is an example:

Information from a food web

The example above contains lots of information. Here are three food chains from it:

 oak tree → squirrel → fox

 oak tree → earthworm → wood mouse → fox
 oak tree → earthworm → wood mouse → owl
The oak trees are the producers. Squirrels and earthworms are primary consumers, and the wood mice
are secondary consumers. The foxes and owls are tertiary consumers (the foxes are also secondary
consumers).

Foxes and owls eat the wood mice, and foxes eat wood mice and squirrels. The fungi and earthworms
are decomposers in this food web.
Competition and interdependence

Competition

Habitats have limited supplies of the resources needed by plants and animals. Therefore, plants and
animals may need to compete with one another for food, water, space and mates in order to survive.

Plants make their own food using photosynthesis, so they do not compete for food. However, plants do
compete for resources like water, space and mineral salts.

Interdependence

In a food web,changes in the population of one organism have an effect on the populations of other
organisms. This is called interdependence.

Pyramids of numbers

A pyramid of numbers shows the population at each stage in a food chain. It is drawn as a bar chart
with the bars stacked on top of each other. The wider the bar, the more organisms it represents.
The producer always goes at the bottom of the pyramid.

Trophic levels
 The position of an organism in a food chain, food web or pyramid is its trophic level. Energy is lost to the
surroundings from one trophic level to the next. This is why there are fewer organisms at each trophic
level in the example above. We can see that:

 a lot of clover is needed to support the snail population

 a lot of snails are needed to support the thrush population
 a lot of thrushes are needed to support the sparrowhawk population
Other pyramid shapes

Often a pyramid of numbers does not look like a pyramid at all. This could happen if the producer is a
large plant, such as a tree, or if one of the animals is very small. Here is an example:

Pyramids of biomass

Biomass is the total dry mass of one animal or plant species in a food chain or food web. A pyramid of
biomass shows the biomass at each trophic level, rather than the population

The biomass goes down from one trophic level to the next, just like the amount of energy, so the bars
always get narrower towards the top.

It can be difficult to get valid data for a pyramid of biomass because:

 measuring dry biomass means that all the water has to be removed from the organisms
 an organism may belong to more than one trophic level, so it cannot easily be represented by one bar
 Energy transfer

Energy is transferred along food chains from one trophic level to the next. However, the amount of
available energy decreases from one trophic level to the next.

Energy loss

In a food chain only around 10 per cent of the energy is passed on to the next trophic level. The rest of
the energy passes out of the food chain in a number of ways:

 it is used as heat energy

 it is used for life processes (eg movement)
 faeces and remains are passed to decomposers
Less energy is transferred at each level of the food chain so the biomass gets smaller. As a result, there
are usually fewer than five trophic levels in food chains.

Percentage efficiency of energy transfer

The percentage efficiency of energy transfer between trophic levels can be calculated using the equation:

energy transferred to next level ÷ total energy in × 100

Worked example

Question

Calculate the total energy that came into the level of the food chain.
4500 kJ + 500 kJ = 5000 kJ

Question
Identify how much energy is transferred to the next level.

500 kJ
Question
Calculate the efficiency of this transfer using the equation.

energy transferred to next level ÷ total energy in × 100

500 kJ ÷ 5000 kJ × 100 = 10%