• Explain the basic processes which keep

organisms alive. (CO1, CO4)

• Four major components of the earth’s life-
support system:
Ø Atmosphere
Ø Hydrosphere
Ø Geosphere
Ø Biosphere
Ø Atmosphere – thin spherical envelope of gases
surrounding the earth’s surface
§ Closest to Earth’s surface (7-18 km above the
equator)
§ Most active region – where all the dramatic events
of weather (rain, lightning, hurricanes) occur
§ Contains almost 80% of the total mass of air and
practically all the atmosphere’s water vapor (forms
clouds and rain)
§ Thinnest layer of the atmosphere (10 km)
§ Temperature decreases with increasing altitude
§ Consists of nitrogen, oxygen and ozone.
§ 19-50 km above the equator
§ Air temperature increases with altitude due to the
exothermic reactions triggered by UV radiation
from the sun.
§ One of the products of this reaction sequence is
ozone (O3), which serves to prevent harmful UV
rays from reaching Earth’s surface.
§ 30-50 km above the equator
§ The concentration of ozone and other gases is low
§ The temperature decreases again with increasing
altitude
§ 50-400 km above the equator
§ Temperature increases with altitude – as the result of
the bombardment of molecular O2 and N2 and atomic
species by energetic particles, such as electrons and
protons, from the sun.

§ In reverse, these processes liberate the equivalent

amount of energy, mostly heat.
§ Ionized particles are responsible for the reflection of
radio waves back toward Earth.
§ ~400 km above the equator
§ The outermost layer of our atmosphere
§ This layer separates the rest of the
atmosphere from outer space – 10,000 km
thick
§ There is a lot of empty space in between of
very spread out hydrogen and helium gases.
§ There is no air to breathe and it is very cold.
• Four major components of the earth’s life-
support system:
Ø Hydrosphere – Aqueous envelope of the Earth
including bodies of water and aqueous vapor in
the atmosphere; Earth’s water: liquid water, water
vapor, ice
• Four major components of the earth’s life-
support system:
Ø Geosphere – portion of the earth that includes the
earth's interior, rocks and minerals, landforms and
the processes that shape the earth's surface; core,
mantle, crust
• Four major components of the earth’s life-
support system:
Ø Biosphere – parts of the atmosphere, hydrosphere,
and geosphere where life is found
Four main
spherical systems:
§ Atmosphere (air
sphere)
§ Hydrosphere
(water sphere)
§ Geosphere (land
sphere)
§ Biosphere (life
sphere)
• One-way flow of
high-quality energy
from the sun
• Cycling of matter
• Gravity - allows the
planet to hold on to its
atmosphere and helps
enable the movement
and cycling of chemicals
through the air, wastes,
soil and organisms
• Temperature
• Liquid water
• Gravity
• Atmosphere
Life on Earth Reflects the Nature of the
Planet
ü Optimum distance from the Sun (-18oC – 38oC)
- If Earth would farther from the Sun, it would be colder,
and chemical processes would be greatly slowed down
e.g. water would be solid and carbon compounds would
be brittle
- If Earth were closer to the Sun, it would be warmer,
chemical bonds would be less stable, and few carbon
compounds would be stable enough to persist
Life on Earth Reflects the Nature of the
Planet
ü Earth’s mass
- has the right amount of gravitational pull to hold the
gases found in our atmosphere

ü Earth’s atmosphere
- helps insulate the Earth from temperature extremes and
radiation that is harmful to life while allowing energy to reach the
surface for fueling life’s activities
• Identify the major components of an ecosystem.
(CO1, CO4)
• Ecology – the study of the
interactions of living things with
each other and their physical
environment (soil, water,
weather, and so on.)
Ernst Haeckel
• Ecologists study interactions
within and among these five
levels of organization of
matter: organisms, populations,
communities, ecosystems, and
biosphere
• Biological
Organization
§ The biosphere is composed of numerous
complex ecosystems.

§ The members of the

community in the
ecosystem and
environment must interact
to maintain a balance.
An ecosystem is self-sustaining if the following
requirements are met:
1. A constant source of energy and a living
system capable of incorporating this energy
into organic molecules.
2. A cycling of materials between organisms and
their environment.
• Abiotic
components (non-
living)
• Biotic components
(living)

https://www.google.com.ph/webh
p?sourceid=chrome-
instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-
8#q=biotic+components+of+ecos
ystems+video
§ those physical and chemical components which affect
the ability of organisms to survive and reproduce
§ Some abiotic components:
• intensity of light
• range of temperatures
• amount of moisture
• type of substratum (soil or rock type)
• availability of inorganic substances such as minerals
• supply of gases such as oxygen, carbon dioxide, and
nitrogen
• pH
§ Each of the prior listed abiotic factors varies in the
environment and, as such, may act as a limiting
factor, determining the types of organisms that exist
in that environment.
§ Some examples:
• A low annual temperature common to the northern
latitudes determines in part the species of plants which can
exist in that area.
• The amount of oxygen dissolved in a body of water will
help determine what species of fish live in the water.
• The dry environment of desert regions limits the organisms
that can live there.
§ all the living things that directly or indirectly
affect the environment
§ Thus, the organisms, their presence, parts,
interaction, and wastes are all biotic factors.
q Producers (autotrophs) – make the nutrients they
need from compounds and energy obtained from
their environment through a process called
photosynthesis. e.g. plants and phytoplanktons
q Consumers (heterotrophs) -all other organisms in an
ecosystem that cannot produce the nutrients they
need through photosynthesis or other processes.
§ Herbivores – primary consumers; plant eaters
e.g. cows, horses, caterpillars
§ Carnivores – meat eaters
• Secondary consumers – eat primary consumers
• Tertiary or higher-level consumers – carnivores
that eat carnivores
§ Omnivores – eat both plants and other animals
§ Detritivores – feed on the wastes of dead bodies
(detritus) of other organisms; ex: earthworms,
some insects and vultures
§ Decomposers (saprotrophs) – they cause decay;
bacteria and/or fungi that, in the process of
obtaining their own nutrients, release nutrients
from the wastes or remains of plants and animals
and then return those nutrients to the soil, water,
and air for reuse for producers.
• Habitat – the place
where a particular
population of a
species lives
• Ecological niche – the
functional role of a
species in an
ecosystem
• Discuss the flow of solar energy from the sun to
earth and its effects to the living planet.
Energy
• the ability to do work
• Potential energy = stored energy
• Kinetic energy = energy of motion

Thermodynamics
• the study of energy and its transformations
• First and Second law of thermodynamics
• Energy cannot be created
or destroyed
• Total energy content of an
organism and its
surroundings is always the
same
• However, energy can
change from one form to
another

Copyright © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. 34
• The amount of usable energy in the universe decreases over time,
as some is lost as heat
o Heat: Less usable and more disorganized form of energy
• Within living organisms, during each energy transformation some
energy is changed to heat
o No organism can use this heat energy for biological work
• Entropy—a measure of this disordered energy
• No process that requires energy is 100% efficient, as much energy
is transformed to heat and becomes unusable for work

Copyright © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. 35
 https://www.youtube.com/
The Path of Energy watch?v=ZzCA60WnoMk

• Sun – ultimate source

of energy
• About 30% of sun’s
energy is reflected
back to space.
• However, some gases
in the atmosphere trap
the heat near Earth’s
surface and this
phenomenon is called
the greenhouse effect.
Greenhouse gases - includes water vapor, CO2, methane,
nitrous oxide, ozone; help trap heat and warm the
atmosphere
Greenhouse effect
• natural greenhouse effect –
vibrating gaseous molecules
have high kinetic energy which
help to warm the lower
atmosphere & earth’s surface
• manmade greenhouse effect –
human activities like burning
carbon-containing fuels releases
CO2 into the atmosphere,
leading to human-enhanced
global warming
Energy enters most ecosystems as sunlight. It is converted to chemical
energy by autotrophs (by a process called photosynthesis), passed to
heterotrophs in the organic compounds of food, and dissipated as
heat.
 • Plants capture light
energy from the sun, and
convert it into stored
chemical energy
• This captured energy is
then released during
cellular respiration, and is
used by the organism to
do biological work

• The chemical equation for photosynthesis is:

• 6CO2 + 12H2O + radiant energy → C6H12O6 + 6H2O + 6O2
• The chemical equation for cellular respiration is:
• C6H12O6 + 6O2 + 6H2O → 6CO2 + 12H2O + energy
q Energy flow – the passage of energy in a one-way
direction through an ecosystem, occurs in food chains

q Trophic level – a
group of organisms
that have the same
source of energy; a
step in a food chain

q Food chain – a
path of energy
through the trophic
levels of an
ecosystem Pyramid energy
§ The chemical energy stored as nutrients in the
bodies and wastes of organisms flows through
ecosystems from one trophic (feeding) level to
another.
§ Food chain – a sequence of organisms, each of
which serves as a source of nutrients or energy
for the next
§ Food web - complex of interconnected food
chains in an ecosystem
 http://www.cengage.com/bi
ology/discipline_content/ani
mations/food_chain.html

Question: Think about what you ate for breakfast. At what

level or levels on a food chain were you eating?
Food Web in in
Antarctic:
The diagram illustrates
a greatly simplified
food web. The middle
area shows a simple
food chain that is part
of these complex
interacting feeding
relationships.

Question: Can you

imagine a food web of
which you are a part of?
Try drawing a simple
diagram of it.
§ Each trophic level in a food chain or web
contains a certain amount of biomass, the dry
weight of all organic matter contained in its
organisms.
§ As energy flows trough ecosystems in food
chains and webs, there is a decrease in the
amount of high-quality chemical energy
available to organisms at each succeeding
feeding level.
§ The percentage of usable chemical energy
transferred as biomass from one trophic level
to the next (ecological efficiency) ranges from
1.3% to 56% (resulting in an energy loss at
each step of 44%-98.7%) depending on what
types of species and ecosystems are involved.

http://student.kc.school.nz/ClassWebs/SciWeb/Y9/Y9Units/EnergyFlowinEcosy
stems.html
Pyramid of
Energy
Flow
(assuming
90% energy
loss with each
transfer)

Question:
Why is a
vegetarian
diet more
energy
efficient
than a meat-
based diet?
• Ecological pyramids graphically
represent the relative energy
values of each trophic level

• Pyramids of numbers show the

number of organisms at each
trophic level in a given
ecosystem

This pyramid of numbers represents

• Pyramids of energy illustrate 10,000 grass plants supporting 10 mice,
which support one bird of prey.
how energy dissipates into the
environment as it moves from
one trophic level to the next
Copyright © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. 47
§ Some ecosystems produce plant matter faster that others
do
§ Gross primary productivity (GPP) – rate at which an
ecosystem’s producers convert solar energy into chemical
energy in the form of biomass found in their tissues. It is
usually measured in terms of energy production per unit
area over a given time span, such as kilocalories per
square meter per year (kcal/m2/yr).
§ Net primary productivity (NPP) – rate at which producers
use photosynthesis to produce and store chemical energy
minus the rate at which they use some of this stored
chemical energy through aerobic respiration.
NPP = GPP – R
§ NPP measures how fast producers can make the
chemical energy that is stored in their tissues
and that is potentially available to other
organisms (consumers) in an ecosystem. Thus, the
planet’s NPP ultimately limits the number of
consumers (including humans) that can survive on
earth.
Answer the following questions concisely and
completely.
1. Suppose you want to create an ecosystem in an
aquarium. Explain why your ecosystem would require
producers.
2. In which trophic level would you place humans. Justify
your answer.
3. Nearly, all the mammals that humans eat, including
cows, sheep, and goats, are herbivores, not carnivores
or omnivores. Explain why a herbivore is a more
efficient meat producer from an energetic point of
view.