How do Ecosystems work?

1
How do Ecosystems work?

• Definition of ecosystem
• Living and non-living interactions
• Energy flow
• What about nutrients?
• On an index card define nutrients?

2
Nutrients

• Substance that an organism must obtain from its
  surroundings for growth and the sustainment of
  life
• These nutrients are necessary for growth
  therefore must contain the elements necessary for
  building blocks

3
Questions

• What are the four main elements of life?
• 1. Carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen
• 2. Carbon, potassium, nitrogen, oxygen
• 3. Carbon, hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen
• 4. Carbon, water, nitrogen, oxygen.

4
Energy Flow, NutrientCycling, Feeding
Relationships

• Nutrients (purple) neither enter nor leave cycle
• Energy (yellow) is not recycled
• Captured by producers
• Transferred through consumers (red)
• Each transfer loses energy (orange)

5
CARBON

• What are the forms of Carbon on our planet?
• Carbon dioxide
• Sugars
• How are these forms cycled?
• Photosynthesis
• Cellular respiration

6
Carbon facts

• Life on Earth is carbon-based.
• Carbon is a lively element that readily combines
  with other elements to make organic compounds.
• A lot of your body, and every body, is made of
  carbon.
• Some carbon parts of your body, right now, were
  parts of living plants only a few months ago.
• Plants, through photosynthesis, make
  carbohydrates that animals eat for food..
• You eat the plants, salad or bread or pasta, or
  another animal (cow), ate the plants then you ate
  the animal (meatballs), and pretty soon the
  carbon that was part of grass became part of you.

7
Carbon facts cont

• Part of the carbon cycle is very fast the
  rock-forming part and coal-petroleum--natural gas
  part takes millions of years.
• Enormous amounts of carbon are stored as coal etc
• Human impact
• In the ocean, sediments are the largest
  reservoirs of carbon--this carbon is not
  accessible to life
• On land, forests are the largest reservoirs of
  carbon--up to 80 of the aboveground carbon. Most
  of it is in the tissues of trees. Russia and the
  Amazon basin together hold about 45 of the
  world's forest carbon.
• Living organisms are crucial to the carbon cycle.

8
The Carbon Cycle
CO2 inatmosphere(reservoir)
CO2 inatmosphere(reservoir)
CO2 inatmosphere(reservoir)
CO2 inatmosphere(reservoir)
CO2 inatmosphere(reservoir)
CO2 inatmosphere(reservoir)
CO2 inatmosphere(reservoir)
Reservoirs
Processes/Locations
Burning offossil fuels
Fire
Respiration
TrophicLevels/Organisms
Producers
Consumers
Consumers

Wastes,Dead bodies
Wastes,Dead bodies
Wastes,Dead bodies
Soil bacteria detritus feeders
Soil bacteria detritus feeders
Soil bacteria detritus feeders
9
Nutrient Cycling

• Same pool of nutrients supports all lifepast,
  present, and future
• Cycle moves nutrients
• From nonliving to living
• From environmental to organisms

10
Atmospheric Cycles (C N)

• Majority of nutrients found in the atmosphere
• Atmospheric nutrients get incorporated into
  living organisms
• Carbonphotosynthesis
• Nitrogennitrogen fixation
• Nutrients are returned to the environment
• Crespiration (all organisms, detritus feeders,
  decomposers)
• Ndecomposers and denitrifying bacteria

11
Nitrogen facts

• Nitrogen is one of the most abundant elements on
  Earth.
• 79 of Earth's atmosphere is nitrogen in gas
  form.
• No living cell can exist without nitrogen.
• But organisms cannot use nitrogen in gas form.
• Multicellular life (plants, animals and fungi)
  depend almost entirely on bacteria to obtain (or
  "fix") nitrogen from the air and transform it
  into a chemical form that plants can use.

12
Importance of Bacteria in Nitrogen cycle

• Some of these talented bacteria interlive with
  legumes such as beans these take nitrogen out of
  the air in soils.
• Other bacteria live freely in the soil,
  processing manures and urine, and also helping to
  decompose dead plants and animals.
• A third kind of bacteria lives in the soil and
  changes "fixed" nitrogen into nitrates,which
  plants can use. Without these nitrifying
  bacteria, agricultural fertilizers do not work.

13
Nitrogen Cycle

• The Nitrogen cycle has two major beginnings and
  two major paths.
• Nitrogen from soil air (to) nitrogen-fixing
  bacteria (to) nitrifying bacteria (to) plants
  (to) animals (to) decomposers
• Nitrogen from dead organisms (to) decomposers
  (to) nitrifying bacteria (to) plants

14
The Nitrogen Cycle
Reservoirs
Nitrogen inAtmosphereReservoir
Nitrogen inAtmosphereReservoir
Electrical stormsproduce nitrate
Nitrogen inAtmosphereReservoir
Processes/Locations
TrophicLevels/Organisms
Consumers
Producers
Wastes,Dead bodies
Uptakebyplants
Denitrifyingbacteria
Nitrogen-fixingbacteria inlegume rootsand soil
Soil bacteria anddetritus feeders
Ammonia nitrate
Ammonia nitrate
Ammonia nitrate
15
Questions

• Which of the following statements best describes
  the movements of energy and nutrients in
  ecosystems?
• 1. Energy and nutrients flow through
• 2. Energy cycles and nutrients recycle
• 3. Energy increases and nutrients cycle
• 4. Energy flows through and nutrients cycle

16
Energy

• Two forms
• Sunlight
• Stored in chemical bonds
• Demos

17
Acid Rain

• Sulfuric and nitric acids in rain
• Result from overloading N and S cycles
• Acid rain examples
• Adirondack Mountainsdead lakes
• Mount Mitchell, N.C.fog pH 2.9
• Black Triangle in Europe
• Soil pH 2.2
• Thermal inversions
• Infant mortality

18
Greenhouse Effect

• Gases which interfere with cooling of Earth
• CO2
• Use of fossil fuels
• Global deforestation by slash burn
• CFCs (A/C refrigeration gases)
• Methane
• NO
• Global warming
• What might be the consequences of global warming?

19
Greenhouse GasesContribute to Global Warming
20
Global Warming ParallelsCO2 Increases
21
Ozone

• O3 layers protect Earth from damage
• If received the full strength of sun energy
  destructive
• 19 miles up
• Highest point on Earth Mt. Everest
• Approx 5 miles
• O3 layers can also cause damage when take up all
  the oxygen molecules
• SMOG
• Ground level

22
Satellite Image of Antarctic Ozone Hole
South America
Antarctica
The hole
23
Questions

• A major ecological concern, the Greenhouse
  Effect, is caused by
• 1. The release of heat energy from burning
  fossil fuels
• 2. The release of carbon dioxide from the
  burning of wood, coal, and oil
• 3. The destruction of ozone in the upper
  atmosphere
• 4. Overuse of fertilizers in farming
• 5. Global warming

24
Questions

• What are the results of global warming?
• 1. Increase in greenhouse effect
• 2. Increase in greenhouse gases.
• 3. Increase in earths temperature.
• 4. All of the above

25
Questions

• Acid precipitation is the result of interference
  with which biogeochemical cycles?
• 1. sulfur and nitrogen
• 2. sulfur and hydrologic
• 3. hydrologic and nitrogen
• 4. hydrologic and phosphorus