Organisms and their environment

Energy flow.

All the energy in an ecosystem originates from the sun. some of the energy is captured by
plants and used to make food. (Glucose, starch, proteins, fats etc). When plants need energy, it
breaks down some of this food by respiration.

Animals get food by ingesting (eating) plants or by eating animals which have eaten plants.

Food chain: It’s a diagram showing the flow of energy from one organism to the next beginning
with a producer.

Food web: It’s made of many interconnecting food cahins

Trophic level: It’s the position of an organism in a food chain.

Energy loses.

As energy passes from one trophic level to the next, 90 % of it is lost to the
environment in the following ways:
 Inform of heat to the environment.
 Inform of kinetic energy during movement.
 Inform of undigested food which is expelled from the body as feaces.
 Inform of food left over’s.

Only 10 % of the energy at each trophic level is passed on to the next level

This means that the further you go up a food chain, less energy is available.
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 What limits the length of a food chain?

There is less energy to support the upper trophic levels.

The non-cyclic nature of energy flow

When energy is lost during its transfer from one energy level to another, it is not cycled
unlike water, nitrogen and carbon.

A vegetarian diet can feed far more people. If we cut down the number of links in a
food chain, more individuals at the end of the food chain can be fed. This is because we
are cutting down the 90% energy wastage that occur between each trophic level

Disadvantage of eating plants only

Shortage of certain types of amino acids which is found only found in animal proteins.

Most of the energy in plant material is not available to us, we cannot digest cellulose, but other
animals like cattle can.

Types of organisms in an ecosystem.

Producers: Living organisms that can make their own food using energy from sunlight
through photosynthesis. Examples: green plants, phytoplanktons and algae.

Consumers: organisms which obtain their energy by feeding on other organisms.

Examples, humans and other animals

Consumers can be classified as primary, secondary or tertiary depending on their

position in a food chain.

Decomposers: organisms which obtain energy from dead bodies and organic remains.
Examples: saprophytic bacteria and fungi.
They prevent accumulation of wastes,
They cause recycling of nutrients
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Types of consumers

1. Herbivore: organisms that obtain energy by feeding on plants only.

2. Carnivores: organisms that obtain energy by eating other animals.

3. Omnivores: Organisms that feed on pants and flesh

4. Parasites: Organisms that obtain food from other organisms causing harm to them.

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 Impact humans have through over-harvesting of specie

Over harvesting can lead to resource destruction including extinction of whole species,
this decreases biodiversity.

Impact of introducing new species to a habitat

New species may not adapt and survive in their new habitat, those that adapt may
outcompete native species and sometimes causing their extinction. Lack of predators
may contribute to their rapid population growth. This alters ecosystem functioning.

Food pyramids

1. pyramid of numbers

The area of each box in the pyramid shows roughly how many living organisms there are at
each trophic level.

Advantages

 Easy to construct
 Does not need to kill the organism
 It’s not time consuming

Disadvantages

 Does not take into account the size of the organism. This can be misleading because the
pyramid can be upside down.

Pyramid of numbers for a grassland community

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 Pyramid of numbers for an oak tree.

Pyramid of numbers can be misleading (upside down) since it does not put into
consideration the size of the organisms.

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Pyramid of biomass

To overcome the problem of size is to measure biomass instead of numbers.

Biomass is the mass of living material in an organism.

Pyramid of biomass shows the actual mass or weight of living things at each trophic level.

Procedure

A sample of the organism from each trophic level is taken and weighed.

The average mass of the sample is calculated.

The average mass is multiplied by the estimated number of organisms present in the
community.
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How to find the dry mass of a plant material?

The plant is dried in an oven until it reaches a constant mass.

The dry mass of an organism is estimated as 65% of their body mass.

Advantage of pyramid of biomass.

It provides a better image for the flow of energy in an ecosystem

Disadvantages of pyramid of biomass.

 Time consuming
 Expensive
 Samples need to be killed for preparation of dry mass.

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 Nutrient cycles

The carbon cycle:

 Carbon is an element that occurs in all the compounds which make up living organisms.
 Plants get their carbon from carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and animals get their
carbon from plants.
 The carbon cycle, therefore, is mainly concerned with what happens to carbon dioxide.

Removing CO2 from the atmosphere:

 Plants use carbon dioxide from the atmosphere for photosynthesis.

 The carbon becomes part of complex molecules in the plants, such as proteins, fats and
carbohydrates.
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Passing carbon from one organism to the next:

 When an animal eats a plant, carbon from the plant becomes part of the fats and proteins
in the animal.
 Microorganisms and some animals feed on waste material from animals, and the remains
of dead animals and plants.
 The carbon then becomes part of these organisms.

Returning CO2 to the atmosphere:

 Carbon dioxide is released to the atmosphere through respiration by animals, plants and
microorganisms.
 It is also released by the combustion of wood and fossil fuels (such as coal, oil and
natural gas).
 The use of fossil fuels is gradually increasing the carbon dioxide levels in the
atmosphere.
 Decomposition or decay also releases carbon dioxide.
 This process happens faster in warm, moist conditions with plenty of oxygen because it
involves microorganisms.
 Decay can be very slow in cold, dry conditions, and when there is a shortage of oxygen.

The effects of the combustion of fossil fuels:

 Since the Industrial Revolution, we have been burning the fossil fuels such as coal and
petroleum and releasing extra CO2 into the atmosphere. As a result, the concentration of
CO2 has increased from 0.029% to 0.035% since 1860.
 Although it is not possible to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that production of CO2
and other ‘greenhouse gases’ is causing a rise in the Earth’s temperature, ie. global
warming, the majority of scientists and climatologists agree that it is happening now and
will get worse unless we take drastic action to reduce the output of these gases.
 Another factor contributing to the increase in atmospheric gaseous CO2 is deforestation.
 Trees are responsible for removing gaseous CO2 and trapping the carbon in organic
molecules (carbohydrates, proteins and fats).
 When they are cut down the amount of photosynthesis globally is reduced.
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  Often deforestation is achieved by a process called ‘slash and burn’, where the felled
trees are burned to provide land for agriculture and this releases even more atmospheric
CO2.

The water cycle:

 The water cycle describes how water moves on, above, or just below the surface of our
planet.
 Water molecules move between various locations – such as rivers, oceans and the
atmosphere – by specific processes. Water can change state.

Evaporation:

 Energy from the Sun heats the Earth’s surface and water evaporates from oceans, rivers
and lakes. The warm air rises, carrying water vapour with it.

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Transpiration:

 Transpiration from plants releases water vapour into the air.

Condensation:

 The moist air cools down as it rises. Water vapour condenses back into liquid water, and
this condensation process produces clouds.

Precipitation:

 As the water droplets in the cloud get bigger and heavier, they begin to fall as rain, snow
and sleet. This is called precipitation .

The nitrogen cycle..

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Parts of the nitrogen cycle.

- Decomposers (bacteria and fungi) break down dead remains and animal wastes releasing
ammonium ions NH+ into the soil.
- Nitrogen is also returned to the soil when animals excrete nitrogenous wastes which they
have produced by deamination of excess amino acids. It may be in the form of ammonia
or urea.
- Nitrifying bacteria in the soil change these ammonium ions and urea into nitrate ions.
These bacteria gain their source of energy from these oxidation reactions. This process is
called nitrification.
- Nitrogen fixing bacteria which are found in the soil and root nodules of leguminous
plants. These bacteria can convert nitrogen from the soil into ammonium ions and other
compounds of nitrogen which the plant can use to make proteins. When they die and
decompose this fixed nitrogen is available to plants. .The process is called nitrogen
fixation. Animals eat the plants so they get their nitrogen in the form of proteins
- Denitrifying bacteria. They live in water logged soils, they can change nitrates and
ammonium ions to nitrogen gas.

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Population size

Population is a group of organisms of one specie, living in the same area at the same time.

Factors affecting population growth.

1. Food supply.

Food keeps organisms stronger and resistant to disease, therefore they can live longer and
reproduce more.

2. Predation.

Presence of predators keeps the numbers of prey low.

3. Disease.

Spread of disease decrease population.

4. Emigration

Departure of organisms from a population decrease population.

5. Immigration

It means entry of individuals, this increases population.

6. Overcrowding

Causes decrease in population due to:

 Pollution by wastes
 Competition for food
 Fighting for resources
 Spread of disease.

Community: all the population of different species in an ecosystem.

Ecosystem: it’s a unit consisting of all the organisms and their environment interacting
together. Examples: decomposing log, a lake, a pond etc

Curves for population growth/ Sigmoid curve

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Phases of a sigmoid curve.

1. Lag phase

Birth rate is slightly greater than death rate. Population increases slightly.
Reasons
 Numbers of organisms reproducing are still small.
 Organisms are still adjusting to the new environment.

2. Exponential phase/ Log phase

Birth rate is higher than death rate. Population increases exponentially.

Reason

 There are no limiting factors such as lack of food, diseases or accumulation of wastes to
limit population, birth rate is rapid and death rate is low.

3. Stationary phase.

Birth rate is equal to death rate. Population remains constant

Reasons: limiting factors such as:

 Shortage of food/limited nutrients

 Accumulation of wastes
 Competition for resources and nesting places
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 The land has reached its carrying capacity

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 Predation
4. Death phase.

This is when the death rate is greater than the birth rate.

Human population growth.

Thousands of years ago, there was only a slow increase in human population due to;

 Lack of food and shelter

 Malnutrition
 Disease
 Wars
 Famines
 Floods

Human population curve over the years

This meant high mortality rates and people did not live long.

Human population has increased exponentially over the past 300 years due to the following:

 Improved agriculture which means more people are better fed and are better defended
against diseases caused by malnutrition.
 Improved public health like clean water supply, hygiene, and sewage treatment. This has
decreased epidemics of water borne diseases.
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 Development of medicines and vaccination against many infections.

 Some religions and cultures do not permit the use of contraceptives.
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Social implications of current survival rates.

 Increased pollution due to increase in wastes

 Deforestation to provide land for building new cities, to use timber for building houses
and furniture and to make paper from wood pulp.
 Loss of habitat for other species as a result of damaging forests and causing extinction of
many species.
 Soil erosion
 Severe food shortages
 Lack of job opportunities
 Low standard of health services and education.

Human population pyramids.

The base of the pyramid shows the percentage of children bellow five years of age. The
oldest people are at the top of the pyramid.

The earth had limited resources and limited space, so the population will have to stabilize or
even decrease at some time in the future. The most obvious way to do this is to reduce
birth rate. In developed countries, the single largest factor which brought down birth rate
was the introduction of contraceptive techniques while china has a one child policy.

Why contraceptive methods are rejected by some societies.

 Some people are suspicious of contraceptive methods

 Some people are barred from using them by their religion
 Other people simply want to have large families.

If we don’t control the human birth rate, then it will happen than famine, wars and disease will
increase the death rate.

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