UNIT – 10 ECOSYSTEM

CHAPTER - 2
BY DINESH SIR
 UNIT – 10 CHAPTER – 2 ECOSYSTEM NOTES BY DINEHS SIR 2

ECOSYSTEM

SYLLABUS –
Ecosystems: Patterns, components; productivity and decomposition; energy flow; pyramids of number, biomass,
energy (Topics excluded: Ecological Succession and Nutrient Cycles).

 Eugene Odum – First time give the concept of ecosystem

 Father of Modern Ecology – Eugene Odum
 Father of Indian Ecology - Ramdeo Misra (1908–1998)
 Term Ecology Coined by - Ernst Haeckel ( in 1866 )
 Term Ecosystem Was Coined by - Sir Arthur G. Tansley ( in 1935 )

Definition – The Community or group of living organisms that live in and interact with each other in
a specific environment is known as Ecosystem .

OR

An ecosystem is a basic structural and functional unit that includes the whole community in a given
area (biotic component) interacting with the abiotic factors.

COMPONENTS OF ECOSYSTEM

An ecosystem consists of the following components -

1. Biotic Components - The various biotic or living components of an ecosystem are further classified as:
I. Producers –
 All green plants are called producers or autotrophs.
 They synthesise organic compounds using raw materials from their environment by process called
photosynthesis.
 These can be further divided into two types:
a. Photoautotrophs - They obtain energy from the sunlight by the process of photosynthesis .
 e.g. green plants, photosynthetic bacteria, etc.
b. Chemoautotrophs - These are chemosynthetic organisms that utilise hydrogen sulphide(H S) and bond
energy derived from breaking of inorganic components .
 e.g sulphur oxidizing bacteria (Beggiatoa).
II. Consumers –
 All animals which depend directly or indirectly on plants for their food requirements are called consumers.
 They are also called heterotrophs.
 They can be classified into the following three types
a. Primary consumers - If consumers feed on plants directly, then they are called primary consumers or
herbivores.
 E,g – Grasshppper , Rabbit and Goat etc .
b. Secondary consumers - These are the animals which feed on herbivores and are also referred to as
primary carnivores.
 E,g – Frog
c. Tertiary consumers - These are animals who depend on secondary consumers for their nutrition. They
are also referred to as secondary carnivores.
 E,g – Snake
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III. Decomposers - These organisms breakdown the organic waste products and dead remains of organisms
into inorganic substances needed by the producers.
 These are also called saprophytes or mineralisers.
 E.g - microorganisms like bacteria and fungi.
2. Abiotic Components - The abiotic or non-living components can be further divided as follows:
I. Inorganic nutrients They form the physical environment, e.g. carbon (C), nitrogen (N), hydrogen (H),
etc.
II. Organic compounds They provide nutrients, e.g. soil.
III. Environmental factors They provide energy, e.g. air, light, temperature, etc. Interaction of biotic and
abiotic components results in the formation of a functional structure that is an exclusive characteristic
of each type of ecosystem.

POND ECOSYSTEM
 It consists of both Biotic and Abiotic components .
1. Biotic Components - A pond consists of all the three types of biotic components like
i. Producers
ii. Consumers
iii. Decomposers
i. Producers - They produce food and provide basic food supply to the pond .
 E.g. - Algae ( like Ulothrix, Spirogyra, diatoms, Anabaena, etc. ) and Phytoplanktons ( like Azolla, Wolffia,
Pistia, Eichhornia, Hydrilla, Typha, etc.) .
ii. Consumers - Consumers directly or indirectly derive nutrition from autotrophs.
 They include
a. Primary consumers They are usually herbivores
 E.g.- Benthos Insects, crustaceans, mites, fishes, molluscs, etc. living at bottom of the sea floor.
b. Secondary consumers - They are carnivores and feed upon primary consumers .
 Examples - Big fishes and beetles etc .
c. Tertiary consumers They are carnivores and feed upon secondary consumers.
iii. Decomposers - They are the saprophytes which decompose the dead organic matter and release inorganic
material which latter being reused by Autotrophs .
 E.g. – Bacteria and Fungi, etc.
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2. Abiotic Components - These are formed by the water and all the dissolved inorganic and organic materials
and soil deposited at the bottom of pond .

FUNCTIONS OF ECOSYSTEM
 The Function of ecosystem can be understood by following 3 steps like –
I. Input
II. Transfer
III. Out Put
I. INPUT – ( Productivity )
(i) PRODUCTIVITY
 The rate of biomass production by living organism is known as Productivity .
 It is expressed in gm− 2 yr 1 or (kcal m−2) yr−1 .
 It is of 2 types like -
A. Primary Productivity -
 The amount of biomass or organic matter produced per unit area over a time period by plants during
photosynthesis is called primary productivity.
 The primary productivity can be divided into 2 types like
a. Gross Primary Productivity (GPP) - The rate of production of organic matter during photosynthesis
by green plants in ecosystem is known as GPP .
b. Net Primary Productivity (NPP) - The gross primary productivity minus respiratory losses (R) is known
as NPP .

NPP =GPP−R
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 NPP is the biomass available for consumption to the heterotrophs, i.e. herbivores and
decomposers.

EXTRA -
Net primary productivity differs in different communities of plants, e.g. In terrestrial community, GPP is 2.7
times of NPP. In ocean community, GPP is 1.5 time of NPP.

I. Secondary productivity -
 It is defined as the rate of formation of new organic matter by consumers.
 It is small compared to primary productivity and tends to decrease with an increase in trophic level.

II. TRANSFER – ( Energy Flow in Ecosystem , Food Chain , Food Web and Ecological Pyramid )
(i) ENERGY FLOW IN ECOSYSYTEM
 Sun is the only source of energy for all the ecosystems on earth , except for deep sea hydrothermal
ecosystems.
 Plants as well as photosynthetic and chemosynthetic bacteria fix solar energy to make food from simple
inorganic molecules.
 Plants utilise only 2% of Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR) on earth .
 The flow of energy is unidirectional, i.e. it flows from the Sun to producers and then to consumers and thus, it
follow the first law of thermodynamics .
ENERGY FLOW EFFICIENCY IN ECOSYSTEME
 Energy transfer from one trophic level to next is done by the Lindemann’s law of trophic efficiency.
 Lindemann in 1942 stated that the efficiency of energy transfer from one trophic level to the next is about
10%. This is also known as ‘ Ten Per Cent Law ’.
 According to Ten per cent law only around 1/10th of the NPP of producers is passed to the herbivores.
 The same pattern is followed when the energy is transferred to next trophic level , that is the carnivores
passes 1/10th of the Net productivity of it to the second level carnivores and so on.
 However, Lindemann’s law or the ten per cent law is not universal.
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(ii) FOOD CHAIN

Definition – A food chain is a linear sequence of organisms through which nutrients and energy pass
as one organism eats another.

OR

The transfer of energy from green plants through a sequence of organisms, where each organism
eats the one below it and in turn gets eaten by one above itself is called food chain.
 In a food chain, each organism occupies a different Trophic level .
 The energy flow occurs in a Single direction in a food chain .
 Types of Food Chain - There are mainly two types of food chains:
1. Grazing Food Chain (GFC) - It begins with the producers who capture the solar energy and feed the energy
into the food chain through photosynthesis .

Eg – Grass  Grass hopper  Frog  Snake  Hawk

Eg - Grass (Producer)  Goat (Primary consumer) → Man (Secondary consumer)
2. Detritus Food Chain (DFC) - It begins with dead organic matter and it is made up of decomposers which are
heterotrophic organisms mainly fungi and bacteria.

Eg - Dead leaves → Woodlouse → Black bird (Producer)

(iii) FOOD WEB
Definition – The group of Food chains which inter connected among them selves to form a net like structure is
known as Food web .
OR
It consists of a network of food chains which become interconnected at various trophic levels.
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 In a food web, a one species may present in one or more than one trophic level.
 The complexity of a food web is in direct relation with the stability/permanency of the ecosystem.
 Such type of an ecosystem is not destroyed naturally and is sustained for a long time.

(iv) ECOLOGICAL PYRAMID

 Definition – The graphical representation of various tropic level
according to their number , energy etc . it appear a pyramid like
structure is known as Ecological pyramid .
OR
An ecological pyramid is a graphical
representation showing the relationship between different
organisms in an ecosystem.
OR
These are the graphical representation of relation
between producers and consumers in terms of number, biomass
and energy in the form of pyamid.
 They represent the standing crops at each trophic level .
 In pyramid structure, the base (broader) always represents the
producers or the first trophic level and the apex (narrower) represents the top level consumers or last trophic
level .

PYRAMID OF NUMBER / NUMBER PYRAMID

Definition - It is the graphical representation of the number of organisms per unit area at each trophic level.

 This pyramid is mostly upright .

 Here the number of producers are maximum and the number of herbivores and the carnivores decreases
towards apex or at the successive trophic level .
Example - Grassland and Aquatic ecosystem.
 But in case of a tree ecosystem , Number ecosystem is inverted .
Example - one single tree (primary producer) has got a large number of feeding birds on it (primary
consumers) which have large number of insects residing on their bodies (secondary consumer).
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PYRAMID OF BIOMASS / BIOMASS PYRAMID

Definition - It graphically represents the relationship between

producers and consumers in terms of biomass.

 It can be: Upright, e.g. in grasslands ecosystem.

 It also may be Inverted, e.g. in aquatic (oceans, ponds, etc.) .
 Biomass pyramid of a Grassland Ecosystem –
The pyramid of biomass in a grassland ecosystem is upright.
 Grasses Present at the base which have the highest biomass, then
followed by herbivores such as rabbits, rats, etc.
 Then the primary consumers are followed by secondary consumers
(owl, lizards, snakes, etc.) and then tertiary consumers (eagle, etc.)
 Here the biomass of the grass is much more than the primary
consumers and decreases further sequentially in secondary and
tertiary consumers.

 Biomass Pyramid of a Marine Ecosystem -

 The biomass pyramid of aquatic ecosystem is inverted.
 Here the biomass of primary producers is much less than the
zooplanktons, which is less than the small fish and the big fish
having the maximum biomass.
 The Phytoplanktons frequently replace and increases their number
which need by zooplankton and larger fish

ENERGY PYRAMID
 It represents the total amount of energy utilised by different trophic level organisms in a unit area over a
period of time.
 It is always upright .
 Here always a gradual decrease in energy at successive higher trophic levels .

III. OUT PUT –

DECOMPOSITION

Definition - It is the process where decomposers breakdown complex organic matter into inorganic simple
substances like carbon dioxide, water and nutrients .

 The Process of decomposition occurs in the following steps:

i. Fragmentation is the breakdown of detritus into smaller particles by detritivores .
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E,g - Earthworm and mites etc .

ii. Leaching is the process by which water soluble inorganic nutrients go down into the soil horizon and
get precipitated as unavailable salts .
iii. Catabolism is the process of degradation of detritus into simple inorganic substances by bacterial
and fungal enzymes.
iv. Humification is the process of accumulation of a dark coloured amorphous substance called humus
and it serves as a reservoir of nutrients .
v. Mineralisation is the process by which humus is further degraded by some microbes to release
inorganic substances.
vi. Decomposition rate is mostly slower .
 if detritus is rich in lignin and chitin the decomposition will be slower .
 It is fast when detritus is rich in nitrogen and water soluble substances.

BELOW TOPICS ARE OUT OF CHSE 12TH SYLLABUS

(REQUIRED FOR OTHER EXMAS LIKE OUAT , NEET , NURSHING ETC )

NUTRIENT CYCLE / BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLE

 The movement of nutrient elements through the various components of an ecosystem is called nutrient
cycling or biogeochemical cycles.
 The amount of nutrients, i.e. carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, calcium, etc., present in the soil at any given time,
is called standing state,. which varies with the type of ecosystem and season.
 Nutrient cycles are of two types based on their reservoirs, i.e.
Gaseous Cycle
 The Reservoir is Atmosphere .
 Here the Nutrients occur in the form of gas or vapour.
 It is Comparatively quicker and faster than other cycles, e.g. carbon cycle and nitrogen cycle.
i. Carbon Cycle -
 Carbon constitutes 45% of dry weight of an organism
 About 71% of carbon is found dissolved in oceans, which is responsible for its regulation in atmosphere.
 Carbon cycle occurs through atmosphere, ocean and through living and dead organisms.
 Fossil fuels also serve as reservoirs of carbon.
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Sedimentary Cycle
 Reservoir is located in the earth’s crust.
 Nutrients occur in non-gaseous form.
 Cycles are comparatively slower, e.g. phosphorus cycle and sulphur cycle.

 Phosphorus Cycle -
 Phosphorus is a major constituent of biological membranes, nucleic acids and cellular energy transfer
systems.
 The natural reservoir is rock, which contains phosphorus in the form of Phosphates.
 When rocks are weathered, minute amounts of these phosphates dissolve in soil and are absorbed by the
roots of plants.
 Herbivores and other animals obtain this element from plants.

ECOLOGICAL SUCCESSION

Definition – Ecological succession is the process by which the mix of species and habitat in an area changes over
time .

OR

It is the sequential, gradual and predictable change in the species composition in an area over a
period of time.

 Here is the entire sequence of communities that successively change in a given area.
 Seral communities - are the individual transitional communities of seral stages.
 Pioneer species - is the species that invades a bare area and starts ecological succession.
 Climax community - is the community that is in near to equilibrium with the environment and is the stable
self-perpetuating final stage.
To reach a climax community, there are following changes that occur in successive seral stages -
 Changes in the diversity of species of organisms.
 Increase in the number of species and organisms.
 Increase in the total biomass.
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PLANT SUCCESSION

Definition - Plant succession is a process by which there is change in the species of plants in the given area over a
period of time .

OR

The process of changes in the habitat accompanied by change of vegetation, one after next is called
plant succession.
 Ecological succession is classified on the basis of various parameters of classification as
(i) Based on the time of succession -
a. Primary succession (where no life existed previously )
b. Secondary succession ( where life existed in past, but disappeared due to some natural
calamities )
(ii) Based on cause -
a. Autogenic succession (i.e. the changes brought by organisms of a community themselves)
b. Aerogenic succession (i.e. changes to physical surroundings).
(iii) Based on nutritional status –
a. Autotrophic succession (with autotrophs as dominant organisms in an inorganic
environment)
b. Heterotrophic succession,( i.e. by heterotrophs in an organic environments. )
(iv) Based on the habitat where succession starts -
a. Hydrosere
b. Halosere (saline habitat)
c. Pammosere (coastal sand)
d. Lithosere
e. Xerosere
 Process / Steps of Ecological Succession -
(i) Nudation - The process by which a bare area is created. It occurs via topographic, i.e. soil erosion,
land slide, climatic or biotic factors.
(ii) Invasion - The process by which new species reach and establish themselves in the bare area. It can
occur by migration, ecesis and aggregation.
(iii) Competition and coaction - Species compete for space and nutrition and those fit for survrival
propagates further.
(iv) Reaction - The established organisms change their surroundings. It results in destruction of one or
less fit community.
(v) Stabilisation or climax - The development of final stage in succession called the climax community.
HYDROSERE / HYDRARCH SUCCESSION
 In this succession, a pond community is converted into a land community.
 During the development in hydrosere succession, there are different stages occurs which are given below .
1. Phytoplankton stage –
 It is the initial stage the algal spores travel and reach in the water.
 Microorganisms like like Bacteria, algae, cyanobacteria, phytoplankton, zooplankton are float and move in
water to form pioneer colonies .
 After their death, they settle to the floor to form a layer of mud.
2. Submerged stage -
 This is the second stage.
 When the organic matter and mud particles settle down to the bottom of the pond, a loose layer is
formed which forms a substratum for submerged, rooted hydrophytes.
 This makes the water level shallow.
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 Ex - Utricularia, Chara, Ceratophyllum, Hydrilla, Vallisneria, etc .

3. Floating stage -
 As the water becomes more shallow , the submerged plants are reduces, and floating plants gradually
appears.
 Submerged and floating plants grow together but over time, the submerged plants are replaced entirely.
 Some floating species have broad leaves that cover the surface of the water, blocking light supply to
submerged plants, causing them to die.
 Ex - Trapa, Pistia, Nymphaea, and Limnanthemum etc .
4. Reed-swamp stages (Amphibious plants ) -
 Here, the ponds and lakes become as shallow as three feet.
 The environment becomes less suited for floating plants and this makes a new condition for growing of
new types of plants.
 The surface of the pond changes into water-saturated marshy land .
 Amphibious plants like reeds and cattails start growing .
 The leaves of these plants are present much above the surface of the water and the roots are submerged
in the mud.
 The large leaves stop the light supply for any submerged plants.
 Thus, further deposition of dead organic matter occurs and the water becomes more shallow .
 Ex - Bothrioclova, Phragmites, Typha, Zizania, etc.
5. Sedge- Grass stage ( Grass stage Plants ) ( Sedge – meadow Stage ) -
 The soil now becomes marshy in nature and is unfit for the plants from the previous stages .
 Plants suitable for marshy climates are usually from Poaceae , Cyperaceae and Gramineae families.
 Sedge and rushes have rhizomes accumulate the soil further and making it tight .
6. Shrub stage –
 With time the soil becomes suitable for the development of shrubs.
 During this stage , the Herbs ( Grasses ) complete shadowed and the Shrub plants grows on the above of
it .
 Due to heavy transpiration by the broad leaves of shrubs the soil water content decreases .
 In this way after several years the swampy places gradually get converted to a wet land .
7. Climax Stage / Forest Stage -
 During this stage , the humus content of the soil increases sue to deposition of dead plants .
 This create an ideal condition for the growth of huge plant in wet land .
 These plants forms a climax vegetation
 The forest can be coniferous, deciduous or temperate
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XEROSERE / XERARCH SUCCESSION ( LITHOSERE )

 Xerosere occurs on bare rock surface where the original substratum is deficient of water and lacks organic
matter.
 The Xerarch Succession is completed by following steps .
1. Lichen Stage –
 This is the first stage of Xerosere Succession .
 During this stage due to some natural forces like Rainfall , Sunlight and Heat etc , the Rock gradually
break down . It will help for the growth of Lichens ( Pioneer Species ) .
 Lichens are the symbiotic associations of Algae and Fungi .
 These Lichens again secrete some acid which dissolve the Rock further and help in soil formation .
2. Moss Stage –
 The accumulation of soil , mosses are grows in that area .
 Ex – Grimmia , Polytrichum etc .
3. Herb Stage –
 The death and decaying of moss forms a mat like area which is favour the germination of Seed of
some plants .
 Ex - Poa and Aristicla
4. Shrub stage –
 Due to the further wearing of rocks , some shrubs are invade into this area .
 Ex – Rhus and Rubus etc .
5. Climax Community –
 Gradually this area more favourable for the growth of Hardy trees .
 Ex - Conifers and Decidious forest etc .
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QUESTIONS
LONG QUESTIONS ( 5 MARKS )

1. What is ecosystem ? Describe the Components of Ecosystem .

SHORT NOTES ( 2 MARKS )

1. Producers
2. Consumers
3. Decomposers
4. Pond Ecosystem
5. Energy flow in Ecosystem
6. Ecological Pyramid
7. Productivity
NOTES

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