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Earth Has Four Major Life-

Support Components
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE 13e
• Atmosphere (air)
• Hydrosphere
CHAPTER 3: • Geosphere (lithosphere)
Ecosystems: What Are • Biosphere
They and How Do
They Work?

Vegetation
and animals
Atmosphere Three Factors Sustain Life on
Soil
Biosphere Earth
Lithosphere
Rock
Crust • One-way flow of high-quality energy
Mantle from the sun
• Cycling of matter or nutrients through
Biosphere
parts of the biosphere
(living organisms)
• Gravity
Core Atmosphere
Mantle (air)

Crust
(soil and rock)
Geosphere
(crust, mantle, core) Hydrosphere
(water)
Fig. 3-2, p. 41

Levels of Organization of

Matter in Nature Organism

• Any form
• Ecology of life
focuses on five • Can be
of these levels classified
into
species

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Ecosystems Ecology

• All members of a community, • How organisms interact with biotic

along with their physical and Coral Reefs are a rich,
and abiotic environment
diverse and productive
chemical environments ecosystems • Focuses on specific levels of matter:
– Vary greatly in size
– Organisms
– Diversity promotes stability and
productivity – Populations
– Dynamic A coastal wetland on – Communities
Lake Superior,
• energy flow
• chemical cycling
Wisconsin. – Ecosystems
– Change over time (succession) – Biosphere

Biosphere Parts of the earth's air,water, and soil

where life is found

Ecosystem A community of different species

interacting with one another and with
their nonliving environment of matter
and energy
Community Populations of different species
living in a particular place, and
potentially interacting with each
other
Population A group of individuals of the same
species living in a particular place

Organism An individual living being

The fundamental structural and

Cell functional unit of life

Molecule Chemical combination of two or

more atoms of the same or different
Water
elements
Atom Smallest unit of a chemical element
that exhibits its chemical properties
Hydrogen Oxygen
Fig. 3-4, p. 42 Fig. 3-4, p. 42

Living and Nonliving Living and Nonliving

Components (1) Components (2)
• Abiotic • Biotic
– Water – Plants
– Air – Animals
– Nutrients – Microbes
– Solar energy – Dead organisms
– Rocks – Waste products of dead organisms
– Heat

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Oxygen (O2)
Precipitation

Carbon dioxide (CO2)

Producer

Secondary
consumer
(fox)
Primary
consumer
(rabbit)

Producers

Water Decomposers

Soluble mineral
nutrients
Fig. 3-5, p. 43

Trophic Levels (1) Trophic Levels (2)

• Producers – autotrophs • Decomposers
– Photosynthesis – Release nutrients from the dead bodies
• Consumers – heterotrophs of plants and animals

– Primary - herbivores • Detrivores

– Secondary - carnivores – Feed on the waste or dead bodies of
organisms
– Third-level - Omnivores

Detritus feeders Decomposers

Primary Production

• The conversion of light

energy to chemical energy is
Carpenter called “gross primary
Termite and
Bark beetle ant galleries carpenter production.” (photosynthesis)
engraving
Long-horned ant work Dry rot
fungus
• Plants use the energy
beetle holes
captured in photosynthesis
for maintenance and growth.
Wood
reduced Mushroom • The energy that is
to powder
accumulated in plant
Time biomass is called “net
progression Powder broken down by primary production.”
decomposers into plant
nutrients in soil
Fig. 3-6, p. 44

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Biological Processes
• Photosynthesis
• Respiration

Photosynthetically Active
Photosynthesis
Radiation (PAR)
• Light
wavelenghts:
400 – 700 nm
• Drives
photosynthetic
reactions

The Leaf as Site of Photosynthetic

Pathways
Photosynthesis
• C3 (Calvin Cycle)
• C4 (Hatch and
Slack)

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Dissimilar Organisms with Similar Approaches to Desert Living

• Crassulacean
Acid
Metabolism
(CAM)
– Photosynthetic
pathway for
xerophytic plants

Water Conservation of
Rain Forest Plants
Production and Consumption of
Energy
• Temporary • Photosynthesis
wilting reduces • Carbon dioxide + water + solar
leaf surface energy glucose + oxygen
area for
transpiration. • Aerobic respiration
• Glucose + oxygen  carbon dioxide
+ water + energy

Energy Flow and Nutrient Solar

Abiotic chemicals energy
Recycling Heat (carbon dioxide,
oxygen, nitrogen,
minerals)
• Ecosystems sustained through:
– One-way energy flow from the sun Heat Heat

– Nutrient recycling
Decomposers Producers
(bacteria, fungi) (plants)

Consumers
(herbivores,
Heat carnivores) Heat

Fig. 3-7, p. 45

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Science Focus: Invisible Science Focus: Invisible

Organisms (1) Organisms (2)
• Microorganisms/Microbes • Microbes can cause disease
– Bacteria – Malaria
– Protozoa – Athlete’s foot
– Fungi • Microbes are also beneficial
– Phytoplankton – Intestinal flora
– Purify water
– Phytoplankton remove carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere

Energy Flow in Ecosystems A Food Chain

• Food chains and web show how eaters,

the eaten, and the decomposed are
connected to one another.
– Food chain is a sequence of organisms,
each of which is a source of food for the
next.
– Food web is a complex network of
interconnected food chains.

Humans

Blue whale Sperm whale Two Kinds of Primary

Elephant
Productivity
seal
Crabeater
seal Killer
whale
• Gross primary productivity (GPP)
• Net primary productivity (NPP)
Leopard
Adelie
penguin
seal
Emperor
penguin
• Planet’s NPP limits number of
consumers
Squid
Petrel
• Humans use, waste, or destroy 10-
Fish
55% of earth’s total potential NPP
Carnivorous
plankton • Human population is less than 1% of
Krill Herbivorous
zooplankton total biomass of earth’s consumers
Phytoplankton
Fig. 3-9, p. 46

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3-4 What Happens to Matter in

Biogeochemical Cycles
an Ecosystem?
• Concept 3-4 Matter, in the form of • Nutrient cycles
nutrients, cycles within and among • Reservoirs
ecosystems and in the biosphere, and • Connect all organisms through time
human activities are altering these
chemical cycles.

Hydrologic Cycle
Climate
change

Condensation Ice and Condensation

snow

• Water cycle is powered by the sun

Precipitation Transpiration Evaporation Evaporation
to land from plants from land from ocean

Surface runoff Increased

1. Evaporation Runoff flooding
from wetland
Precipitation
to ocean
destruction
2. Precipitation Lakes and
reservoirs
Reduced recharge of
aquifers and flooding
from covering land Point
with crops and source
3. Transpiration - evaporates from plant Infiltration
and percolation
buildings pollution
into aquifer
surfaces Surface
runoff

• Water vapor in the atmosphere comes Groundwater Ocean

movement (slow) Aquifer
depletion from
overpumping
from the oceans – 84% Processes
Processes affected by humans

• Over land, ~90% of water reaching the Reservoir

Pathway affected by humans

atmosphere comes from transpiration Natural pathway

Fig. 3-12, p. 49

Carbon dioxide
in atmosphere

Carbon Cycle Respiration

Photosynthesis
Burning
Forest fires fossil fuels
Diffusion Animals

• Based on carbon dioxide (CO2) (consumers)

• CO2 makes up 0.038% of atmosphere Deforestation

Plants Carbon
volume Transportation Respiration (producers) in plants
(producers)

• Major cycle processes Carbon dioxide

Carbon
in animals
(consumers)
– Aerobic respiration dissolved in ocean

Marine food webs Decomposition Carbon

in fossil
– Photosynthesis Producers, consumers,
decomposers
fuels

– Fossil fuel combustion and deforestation Carbon

in limestone or Compaction

• Fossil fuels add CO2 to the atmosphere Processes

dolomite sediments

and contribute to global warming Reservoir

Pathway affected by humans
Natural pathway
Fig. 3-13, p. 51

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Processes
Nitrogen
Reservoir in atmosphere

Nitrogen Cycle Pathway affected by humans

Natural pathway
Denitrification
Electrical by bacteria
storms Nitrogen

• Multicellular plants and animals Nitrogen oxides

from burning fuel Volcanic
activity
in animals
(consumers)
Nitrification
cannot utilize atmospheric nitrogen by bacteria

(N2) Nitrogen
in plants
(producers)
Nitrates

• Nitrogen fixation (N2 --- NO3 ) from fertilizer

runoff and
decomposition Decomposition Uptake by plants

• Nitrification (NO3 --- NH4) Nitrate

in soil

• Denitrification Nitrogen Nitrogen

Bacteria
loss to deep in ocean
ocean sediments sediments Ammonia
in soil

Fig. 3-14, p. 52

Phosphorus Cycle
• Does not cycle through the
atmosphere
• Obtained from terrestrial rock
formations
• Limiting factor on land and in
freshwater ecosystems
• Biologically important for producers
and consumers
Fig. 3-15, p. 53

Processes
Reservoir
Pathway affected by humans Sulfur Cycle
Natural pathway
Phosphates Phosphates
in sewage in fertilizer Plate
Phosphates
in mining waste Runoff Runoff
tectonics
• Most sulfur stored in rocks and minerals
• Enters atmosphere through:
Sea
birds
Runoff Phosphate

– Volcanic eruptions and processes

in rock
Erosion
(fossil bones,
guano) Ocean

– Anaerobic decomposition in swamps,

Animals food chain
(consumers)
Phosphate Phosphate
dissolved in in shallow
water ocean sediments
Phosphate bogs, and tidal flats
in deep

– Sea spray
Plants ocean
(producers) sediments

– Dust storms
Bacteria

– Forest fires
Fig. 3-15, p. 53

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Sulfur dioxide
in atmosphere
Sulfuric acid
and Sulfate
deposited as
acid rain

Burning Refining
Smelting
coal fossil fuels
Sulfur
Dimethyl in animals
sulfide (consumers)
a bacteria
byproduct

Sulfur
in plants
(producers)
Mining and Uptake
extraction Decay by plants
Sulfur
in ocean Decay
sediments

Processes Sulfur
in soil, rock
Reservoir
and fossil fuels
Pathway affected by humans
Natural pathway
Fig. 3-16, p. 54 Fig. 3-16, p. 54