1. Unit 2: Ecosystems & Biospheres
Energy & Matter, Biogeochemical Cycles, Human Impact
Saturday, November 24, 2018

2. Organisms to Biosphere
Organism: one individual life form
Population: group of the same species
Community: collection of populations
Ecosystem: community and the environment
Biosphere: global ecosystem (Earth)

3. Biomes Broad geographic regions
Characterized by climate & major vegetation
Aquatic Biomes: 75% of Earth
Terrestrial Biomes: 25% of Earth
Biomes

4. The Laws of Thermodynamics
Energy & Mass
Saturday, November 24, 2018

5. Law 1: Conservation of Mass & Energy
Mass and Energy are neither created nor destroyed, only transferred.
Saturday, November 24, 2018

6. Law 2: Order requires energy (metabolism), disorder releases energy.
Saturday, November 24, 2018

7. Recall: Energy Flows Energy flows into and out of the biosphere
In from sun and to each trophic level
Out as heat lost by cellular processes

8. Energy enters the ecosystem as sunlight
Only 1-2% of the light energy is captured and turned into chemical energy by plants (PHOTOSYNTHESIS)
98-99% rest is reflected, or just warms up the tree as it is absorbed

9. 1. Producers
Plants are called producers, because they can “produce” their own food using energy from sun light.

10. converts solar energy to chemical energy
Photosynthesis
converts solar energy to chemical energy
CO2 + H C6H12O6 + O2
sun

11. Producers/Autotrophs
Determine the size of the community
More producers = more consumers
The most mass in an ecosystem
The most energy in an ecosystem

12. Saturday, November 24, 2018

13. Consumers/Heterotrophs
Includes:
Primary Consumers, Secondary Consumers, Tertiary Consumers, Quartenary Consumers and
Decomposers
Must obtain energy from outside sources

14. Cellular Respiration
C6H12O6 + O CO2 + H20 + ATP

15. Trophic Levels, Biomass & Energy in Ecosystems

16. Energy Movement through Ecosystems
Energy flows through ecosystems
Trophic levels: feeding relationships

17. Trophic Relationships
Primary producer
All autotrophs
Primary consumer
Herbivores (eat producers)
Secondary consumer
Carnivores (eat primary consumers)
Omnivores (eat plants and consumers)
Tertiary consumer
Carnivores (eat secondary consumers)
Quaternary consumer
Carnivores (eat tertiary consumers)
Detritivore
Eat dead plant/animal matter
Decomposer
Recycle matter back to soil

18. Food Chain
A linear relationship that illustrates how energy flows in an ecosystem

19. Food Web A collection of interconnecting food chains
Organisms eat more than one type of food sources

20. Trophic Pyramid
Shows energy flow by category, from producers to top level consumers. Pyramid because lower levels out number upper levels in number, biomass, and energy.

21. Biomass: total amount of organic matter
in an area. Usually measured as a weight
Usually shown as a biomass pyramid

22. Represents the amount of living organic matter at each trophic level and therefore potential food available
wolves
Deer
Vegetation
Biomass

23. 10% Rule
Only about 10% of the energy available within one trophic level is transferred to organisms at the next trophic level
Eagle
Robin
Caterpillar
Leaves
.1% 1%
10%
100%

24. Not recycled, but transformed
Energy flows through
Not recycled, but transformed
Wolf
Deer
Grass Decomposers
= loss: heat
or kinetic
Energy is Conserved within the system

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29. Recall: Matter Cycles Matter cycles through the biosphere
Producers  consumers  decomposers
Biomass is conserved

30. Biogeochemical Spheres
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