1. Matter & Energy Flow
Blog: Give an example of a species interaction from one of the four Curacao ecosystems.
Complete a self assessment of your lab using the rubric and submit your hardcopy in the box.

2. 5.1.14 Decomposers recycle matter
Decomposition: process by which organic matter is broken down into simpler forms.
Allows for the formation of soil, the recycling of nutrients stored in the organic materials
Saprotrophs: secrete digestive enzymes into dead organism, which hydrolyze biological molecules of which the dead organism is composed
Saprotrophs are essential in the flow of nutrients through ecosystem, which would otherwise accumulate in debris

3. Mycorriza
Mycorriza = symbiotic relationship between fungus and root of plant
Fungus – provide nutrients
Plant – provide carbon
‘World Wide Web’

4. 5.1.0 Energy transformations
Aquatic and terrestrial communities rely on sunlight as source of energy
The transfer of energy from one trophic level to the next is inefficient
10-20 % of the energy on one trophic level will be assimilated at the next higher trophic level

5. 5.10 Energy flow in a food chain
Units = energy/ area/unit time e.g. kJ m-2 yr-1
Producers convert only about 1% of solar energy available to them to organic matter
Energy mostly lost via heat

6. 5.10 Energy flow in a food chain
Energy is also lost:
Not consumed
Not absorbed/assimilated
I=input, A=assimilation, R=respiration, NU=not utilized, P=production, B=biomass

8. Energy Flow Understand how energy flows through an ecosystem.
4 producers
3 herbivores
1 top consumer
1 writer
3 accountants

9. Energy lost
PAYMENT
Death tax – energy lost through death to decomposers (5%)
Sanitation tax – energy lost through waste (15%)
New biomass – what is passed on to the next trophic level (10%)

10. Accountant’s Job
Calculate how many beads each individual gains initially, how many is lost through what means, and the total number of beads at the end
E.g. Plant
Gains: 40 beads
Lost through death: 4 beads
Lost through waste: 6 beads
Total left: 30 beads

11. Energy flow simulation
I originally designed the simulation with 4 trophic levels. Why did I not run it with this number? Why is it rare to see food chains that extend past the 3rd or 4th trophic level?
The human population has passed the 6 billion mark. With the huge population growth in the world, it becomes increasingly difficult to feed everyone. What information does this activity give you about successfully meeting this problem?

12. Blog: How is energy lost through the ecosystem?
Matter & Energy Flow
Blog: How is energy lost through the ecosystem?

13. G2.1 Gross production vs. net production
Energy is not entirely lost; organisms do trap some of the energy in the form of biomass
Gross production (GP) = total amount of energy trapped in organic matter produced by plants in an ecosystem
Net production (NP) = GP – energy lost through respiration
Amount of biomass that is available to the next trophic level

14. G1.9 Biomass.
Biomass = total dry mass of organic matter in organisms of ecosystems
Organic matter = carbon compounds such as carbohydrates, lipids and proteins
Most matter usually includes water (not organic) so the matter has to be dried
Units = energy/area/unit time e.g. g m-2 yr-1

16. Greenhouses
How warming affects…
Soil nutrient availability, microbial biomass,
Plant community structure, time of flowering
Caribou exclosures
Fertilized plots
Tara’s research: caribou-plant-soil interactions
in the context of climate change

17. Destructive process so samples should be small as possible

18. Seed quality of small plants and large plants in a population

19. Separating seeds from plants
Seeds in coin envelopes

20. G1.10 Measurement of different biomass of trophic levels in an ecosystem
E.g. An ecologist wants to compare the amount of organisms in each trophic level of an ecosystem
Method:
Representative samples of organisms collected, such as random quadrats
Organisms sorted into trophic levels
Organisms dried in oven at (60 – 80 degree C)
Mass organism of each trophic level is measured using electronic balance

21. G2.4 Explain the small biomass and low numbers of organisms in higher trophic levels

22. Modelling

23. G2.5 Construct a pyramid of energy, given appropriate information
Trophic level and energy flow e.g. freshwater spring in Florida, USA.
Each trophic level is plotted with equal thickness on the vertical scale, but horizontal scale indicates the size of each bar.
Original data are halved for the purposes of plotting

24. G2.5 Construct a pyramid of energy, given appropriate information
flipped and the two sides stuck together as follows