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Chapter 6: Ecosystems and Ecosystem Management

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Chapter 6: Ecosystems and Ecosystem Management Watershed The whole region or extent of land which contributes to the supply of a river, lake or ocean. – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Chapter 6: Ecosystems and Ecosystem Management


1
Chapter 6 Ecosystems and Ecosystem Management
2
Watershed
  • The whole region or extent of land which
    contributes to the supply of a river, lake or
    ocean.

3
Our Watershed
Elm Fork Trinity Watershed
4
Bioindicator
  • The presence, condition, and numbers of the types
    of fish, insects, algae, and plants that provide
    accurate information about the health of a
    specific body of water.
  • By tracking changes, water systems can be
    identified that have undergone change due to
    stress placed upon the environment.

5
Bioindicators
  • Some bugs can't tolerate water pollution,
  • We call these bugs pollution sensitive. 
  • 12 points each
  • MayflyCaddisflyWater PennyPlanarianDobsonflyS
    tonefly
  • Other bugs are less sensitive to pollution...
  • Eight points each
  • Crayfish              DragonflyMussel
    Riffle Beetle AdultWhirligig
    DamselflyClam FishflySowbug
    Riffle Beetle Larva             Alderf
    ly DamselflyCraneflyDragonflyMuss
    el
  • Some bugs can live in any kind of water.  We call
    these bugs pollution tolerant.
  • Four points each
  • LeechMidgeAquatic WormGilled SnailBlack
    FlyLunged Snail

6
Osteichthyes
  • The Clean Water Act (CWA) was based on several
    laws, (Federal Water Pollution Control Act of
    1972, Clean Water Act of 1977, and the Water
    Quality Act of 1987) and was created to identify
    and reduce pollution caused by industrial,
    government, and agricultural facilities.
  • The Acts objective is to restore and maintain
    the chemical, physical, and biological integrity
    of the Nations waters through the use of
    credible bioindicators to evaluate the health of
    a body of water.

7
EPA Case Study
8
The Ecosystem Sustaining Life on Earth
  • Sustaining life on Earth requires more than
    individuals
  • Life is sustained by interactions of many
    organisms functioning together in ecosystems
  • Physical and chemical environments

9
Basic Characteristics of Ecosystems
  • Ecosystems have several fundamental
    characteristics
  • Structure
  • Made up of two major parts
  • Biotic or living (ecological community)
  • Abiotic or non living (physical chemical
    environment)

10
Basic Characteristics of Ecosystems
  • Processes
  • Cycling of chemical elements and flow of energy
  • Change
  • Undergo development through succession

11
Basic Characteristics of Ecosystems
  • For complete recycling of chemical elements to
    take place, several species must interact.
  • Photosynthetic organisms produce sugar from
    carbon dioxide and water
  • From sugar and inorganic compound they make other
    organic compounds (protein, woody tissue)
  • Need decomposers to get back to inorganic
    compounds

12
Basic Characteristics of Ecosystems
  • At its simplest a community will have
  • At least one species that is a producer
  • Another species that is a decomposer
  • Plus a fluid medium

13
Ecological Communities
  • Ecological community defined in two ways
  • A set of interacting species found in the same
    place and functioning together to maintain life.
  • Operational def all the species found in an
    area, whether or not they interact.

14
Food Chains
  • Energy, chemicals and some compounds are
    transferred from creature to creature along food
    chains (food webs).
  • The linkage of who feeds on whom
  • Grouped by trophic level
  • of feeding levels away from original source of
    energy

15
Trophic Levels
  • First trophic level
  • Use energy from the sun and carbon dioxide from
    the air to photosynthesizes
  • Green plants, algae and certain bacteria
  • Called autotrophs
  • Second trophic level
  • Organisms that feed on autotrophs
  • Called herbivores

16
Trophic Levels
  • Third trophic level
  • Feed directly on herbivores
  • Called carnivores (meat eaters)
  • Fourth trophic level
  • Carnivores that feed on third-level carnivores
  • Decomposers- feed on waste and dead organisms of
    all trophic levels

17
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18
A Terrestrial Food Chain
  • Example North American Temperate Woodland
  • 1st level- grasses, herbs and trees
  • 2nd level- mice, pine borer and deer
  • 3rd level- foxes, wolves, hawks and other
    predatory birds and insects
  • 4th level- humans

19
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20
An Oceanic Food Chain
  • Tend to have more trophic levels
  • 1st level- planktonic algae and planktonic
    bacteria
  • 2nd level- zooplankton and some fish
  • 3rd level- fish and invertebrates feed on
    herbivores, baleen whales
  • 4th levels- killer whales, predatory fish

21
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22
The Food Web of the Harp Seal
  • Food webs are complex because most species feed
    on several trophic levels.
  • Harp seal (shown at 5th level)
  • Feeds on flatfish (4th level)
  • But also feed on foods from 2nd 4th
  • A species that feeds on several levels placed in
    a category one above the highest level it feeds
    on.

23
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24
Community Level Interactions
  • Indirect and more complicated community wide
    affects species have on one another.
  • Sea otter of the Pacific Ocean
  • Came close to extinction because of over hunting
    for fur
  • Feed on shellfish (abalone, sea urchins)
  • Where sea otters abundant kelp beds abundant and
    few sea urchins
  • Otters affects the abundance of kelp

25
Community Level Interactions
  • Sea otters have community level effect
  • Where more kelp is present more habitat for many
    species
  • Keystone species
  • A species that has a large effect on its
    community or ecosystem
  • Holistic view
  • Ecological community is more than the sum of its
    parts

26
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27
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28
How do you know when you have found an ecosystem?
  • An ecosystem is the minimal entity that has the
    properties required to sustain life.
  • Vary greatly in structural complexity and clarity
    of their boundaries.
  • Differ is size, composition, proportion of
    non-biological constituents and degree of
    variation in time and space.

29
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30
Watershed
  • Watershed
  • Commonly used practical delineation of the
    boundary of an ecosystem
  • Determined by topography
  • United in terms of chemical cycling

31
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32
Ecosystem Management
  • Ecosystem can be natural or artificial
  • Can also be managed
  • Agriculture
  • Wildlife preserves
  • Ecosystem concepts lies at the heart of the
    management of natural resources.
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