1. Energy Flow Through Ecosystems

2. Ecology Developed by Ernst Haeckel
Eco-house -logy-study
The study of the interactions among organisms and between organisms and their abiotic environment.
Composed of biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving or physical)

3. Levels of biological organization in ecology
Biosphere
Landscapes
Ecosystems
Communites
Populations
Individual Organism

4. Energy Roles Energy Role in an Ecosystem
Stored=potential
Motion=kinetic
Thermodynamics is the study of energy
Closed system: no energy exchange with surroundings
Open system: energy exchanged with surroundings

5. Laws of Thermodynamics
First Law: Energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but transformed from one form to another.
In biological terms: organisms do not create energy but use energy from the environment. Sun-photosynthesis-food
Second Law: When energy is converted from one form to another, usable energy is lost.
Heat is an examples in biological orgranisms.

6. Some Energy Roles The sun: provides energy (light energy)
Producers: harness energy from the sun
ex. plants
Consumers: organisms that eat something else
ex. animals
Decomposers: return energy to the environment
ex. fungus, bacteria

7. Producers
Plants harness energy from the sun through photosynthesis- Autotroph
6 CO H2O Light C6H12O6 + 6 O H2O
They are the base of every food chain
Source of food for all other animals

8. Consumers Relies on producer for their energy needs. Heterotroph
4 Types
Herbivore: eats only plants
Ex. Cows, horses
Carnivore: eats only meat
Ex. Polar bear
Obnivore: eats plants and animals
Ex. Humans, grizzly bears
Scavenger: carnivore that feeds on bodies of dead organisms
Ex. Vultures

9. Decomposer
Decomposers break down wastes and dead organisms and return the raw materials to the environment-Heterotroph
Ex. Bacteria, fungi

10. Energy flow through biological systems

11. Food Chains
Food Chain: series of events in which one organism eats another and obtains energy

12. Food Chains Continued
Arrows always points in the direction of energy flow
1st organism is always the producer
2nd organism is the consumer that eats the producer
Primary consumer
3rd organism is the consumer that eats the 1st level consumer
Secondary consumer
And so on…..

13. Energy passes onto next level
Energy Flow
100
The energy available to each trophic level will always equal the amount entering the trophic level, minus total losses to that level (due to metabolic activity, death, excretion, etc)
Energy lost as heat will be lost from the ecosystem. Other loses becaome part of the detritus and may be utilized by other organisms in the ecosystem.
Trophic Level
Energy lost as heat
Energy lost to detritus 65 10 25
Energy passes onto next level

14. Energy (ecological) Pyramid
The percentage of energy transferred from one trophic level to the next is called the trophic effeciancy. 5-20%
An average figure of 10% is often used-the 10% rule.
Energy Pyramid shows the amounts of energy that moves from one level to the next
Can also have a pyramid of biomass

15. Sample Energy Pyramid

16. Productivity of Producers
Gross primary productivity (GPP)
Rate at which energy is captured during photsynthesis.
Net primary productivity (NPP)
The energy that remains in plant tissues after respiration.
Only the energy represented by NPP is avaible for consumers.

17. Net Primary Productivities
NPP= GPP- Plant respiration
The NPP for a particular river ecosystem is measured at 8,833 kcal/m2/year. Respiration by the aquatic producers is estimated at 11,977 kcal/m2/year. Calculate the GPP for this ecosystem.

18. 8,833 kcal/m2/year + 11,997 kcal/m2/year=
20,830 kcal/m2/year