1. ECOSYSTEMS
LEVEL 3 BIOLOGY

2. Where did you picture yourself?
What did you see?
What did you hear?
What did you feel?

3. AN ECOSYSTEM IS…
All the communities (biotic) and abiotic factors in an environment.

4. AN ECOSYSTEM IS… COMMUNITIES All the kinds of living things EXAMPLES
Water lillies
Goldfish
Frogs
Bacteria
Cattails
ABIOTIC FACTORS
Conditions or resources
EXAMPLES
Water
Sunlight
Oxygen
Nutrients
Carbon dioxide

5. “THE LIVING THINGS”
POPULATION = a group of organisms of the same species that live in one area

6. SO HOW DO THESE ORGANISMS GET ENERGY?
PLANTS – PHOTOSYNTHESIZE!
ANIMALS - EAT FOOD!
We call plants the producers, or autotrophs and animals the consumers, or heterotrophs.
We also classify animals (consumers) as carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores.

7. PHOTOSYNTHESIS
Plants use carbon dioxide, water, and the sun to make food for themselves – animals take advantage of this and consume plants.
Animals eat plants and produce carbon dioxide and water as wastes.

8. IT’S A CYCLE!!! RESPIRATION Animals & Plants Consumers or heterotrophs
PHOTOSYNTHESIS
Plants
Producers or autotrophs
Use carbon dioxide & water
Make sugar or starch
RESPIRATION
Animals & Plants
Consumers or heterotrophs
Use sugar or starch
Make carbon dioxide & water

9. FOOD CHAINS
A food chain models the flow of energy through organisms in an ecosystem.
Secondaryconsumer
(Dr. Ball- Goodrich’s biology students)
Primary consumer
Producer

10. Levels Producer which is typically a ____________
Primary Consumer, also called a ___________
Secondary Consumer, also called a ________
Tertiary Consumer
Quaternary Consumer

11. FOOD WEBS
A food web demonstrates the interconnections between food chains in a community or ecosystem.

12. Draw a Food Web!! leafy plant, flowering plant
Grasshopper eats both plants
Squirrel eats flowering plant
Rat eats leafy plant and grasshopper
Frog eats grasshopper
Bunny eats flowering plant
Fox eats rat, squirrel,bunny
Snake eats frog and bunny
Owl eats Frog and snake

13. FOOD WEBS WHAT do the arrows represent?
Why do the arrows point in THIS direction?

14. Food Web Analysis
What animals are on the highest trophic level? What trophic level is it?
Describe the role of decomposers in the food web; describe where the matter they break down goes.
What happens to the amount of energy available as you go up the food web? Explain!

15. What would happen if the owls were removed from this ecosystem?
A resource pulse is an increase in available food; predict what would happen if there was an increase in plant material in this ecosystem.

16. What about energy? Where does the energy come from?
Energy moves through the food chain, from producers to consumers to decomposers BUT it is NOT recycled!!!!
Why not? The “Law of Conservation of Energy” aka “The First Law of Thermodynamics”……

17. Energy Cannot be Created or Destroyed!!!

18. Energy passes through the Trophic Structure of the Ecosystem
What is it?
A pattern of feeding relationships consisting of different levels
The sequence of food transfer up the trophic levels is known as a FOOD CHAIN
Arrows in food chain point FROM the food TO the consumer
Up to 5 trophic levels in a food chain:
Producer; Primary, Secondary, Tertiary, Quaternary Consumers

19. Where does the energy go?
Most energy at each trophic level is used by living things (conduct metabolism, to hunt/kill/consume food, grow, reproduce)
Much is lost as HEAT
Not all living material is consumed (ex: bones, bark, etc.)- these parts are decomposed
So how much energy IS passed on?

20. The Law of 10%
At each trophic level, 90% of available energy is used, with most of it “lost” as heat to atmosphere.
Only 10% of the energy at each level is available to the next trophic level (when they get EATEN!)
So if a producer has 10,000 Calories (or kilocalories) of energy, how much energy would each level after that have?

21. Energy Pyramid At each higher
trophic level, the amount of energy is 10% of the previous level!
Which gets more
energy from its prey- primary consumers?
tertiary consumers?

22. ECOLOGICAL PYRAMID
Shows each step in the transfer of energy and matter in a food chain
Fill in Trophic Levels:
Producer
Primary consumer
Secondary consumer
Tertiary consumer
What trophic level is each term below?
Herbivore
Carnivore
Omnivore
Scavenger
Decomposer

23. ENERGY PYRAMID
This pyramid represents the energy contained in the biomass.

24. Energy Can also be measured in Joules (J)

26. Revisit: Food Chain/Web Analysis
What animals are on the highest trophic level? What trophic level is it?
Describe the role of decomposers in the food web; describe where the matter they break down goes.
What happens to the amount of energy available as you go up the food web? Explain!

27. What does this mean for higher level consumers?
-There’s less energy in the food they eat!
-This means there are FEWER higher level consumers and MORE producers and lower level consumers
What happens to an ecosystem if all the producers are killed? (Think deforestation, forest fire, drought, etc)

28. AN ECOLOGICAL PYRAMID…
Shows the relationships between producers and consumers at all the trophic levels in an ecosystem.
Number of organisms
energy
biomass

29. BIOMASS PYRAMID
This pyramid represents the amount of biomass found at each trophic level.

30. NUMERICAL PYRAMID
This pyramid represents the relative number of organisms at each trophic level.

31. Matter is recycled How is matter recycled?
-Matter moves through food web, from the producers to the consumers
-After organism dies, decomposers break down matter to primary nutrients
-Cycle starts over again when nutrients are taken up by producers

32. What is recycled & how is it done?
Carbon (Carbon cycle?)
Nitrogen (Nitrogen cycle?)
Phosphorous (Phosphorous cycle?)
Sulfur (Sulfur cycle?)

33. CYCLES!
NITROGEN CYCLE CARBON CYCLE PHOSPHORUS CYCLE (no gas phase)

34. CARBON CYCLE

35. PHOSPHORUS CYCLE

37. Feeding relationships in an Ecosystem
Predation
Predator (typically a Carnivore)
Prey (may exhibit camouflage)
Herbivore, Scavenger, Decomposer

38. NON-FEEDING RELATIONSHIPS IN ECOSYSTEMS
SYMBIOSIS:
Mutualism – relationship where both organisms benefit
Commensalism - relationship where one organism benefits and the other organism is unaffected
Parasitism – relationship where one organism benefits and the other organism is harmed (sometimes this is a feeding relationship)

39. 6.

40. 4.

41. 1.

42. 7.

43. Plasmodium – a protozoan that causes malaria

44. After “Rat Attack!”
Draw a food web including the bamboo, black rat, chickens, corn, humans, rice, stink bugs, and anything else that you might notice in the film.
Describe how this ecosystem changes when a “resource pulse” (ex. rapid production of bamboo fruit) occurs. Be sure to describe how this affects all of the various populations that are shown in the video.