This document defines ecosystems and describes different types of ecosystems. It discusses the organization of ecosystems including habitats, populations, communities, and food chains/webs. Six main ecosystems are described: marine, grasslands, tropical rainforests, deserts, tundra, and temperate forests. Each ecosystem is characterized by its climate, plants, and animals. The document also explains producers, consumers, trophic levels, and how energy transfers through food chains and interconnected food webs.

1. ECOSYSTEMS

2. CONCEPT
• An ecosystem is the interaction between
living organisms and the non-living
physical environment in which they live.

3. TYPES OF ECOSYSTEMS
• 1. Marine ecosystems.
• 2. Grasslands.
• 3. Tropical rainforests.
• 4. Deserts.
• 5. Tundra.
• 6. Temperate forests.

4. ECOSYSTEM ORGANISATION​
• A habitat is a place where an organism lives.
• Organisms in the same area form groups.
• Groups of the same species form the
population.​
• Populations interact with each other and form
a community. ​

5. 1. MARINE ECOSYSTEMS
Marine habitats are quite different: cold
and dark in the depths of the ocean OR
light and warm in coastal shores.
They are one of the largest ecosystems
on Earth:
• coral reefs
• shorelines
• open oceans

6. 2. GRASSLANDS
• They are wide expanses of land filled with
low growing plants such as grasses and
wildflowers. Two types: savannahs and
temperate grasslands.

7. 3. TROPICAL RAINFORESTS
They form the most diverse ecosystems
on land around at equatorial latitudes.
There is a great biodiversity thanks to the
warm wet climate and 12 hours of
sunshine.

8. Emergent trees are usually about 50
or 60 metres tall. They have adapted
to survive in hot temperatures and
strong winds.
The trees are more than 30 metres tall.
Birds, mammals, insects and reptiles all
live up here.
This part is made up of trunks,
branches, bushes and shrubs.
Predators like jaguars and snakes live
in here along with small mammals,
amphibians and reptiles.
In this part live invertebrates, fungi and
bacteria. The forest floor is dark as little
sunlight penetrates though the canopy.

9. 4. DESERTS
They are the driest and hottest places on
Earth.
• Temperatures are very high during the day
and very low at night.
• Plants and animals in deserts have
adapted to the dry conditions.

10. 5.Tundra
It occupies the areas around the Arctic Circle
and some parts of Antarctica.
• It has low temperatures and no light for half the
year so it is sparsely inhabited.
• Its main characteristic is the absence of trees.
Some common plants: mosses, lichens and
some grasses.

11. 6. TEMPERATE FORESTS
• Coniferous forests, located in cold areas.
• Temperate deciduous forests, which lose
the leaves every winter.
• Mediterranean forest is found surrounding
areas of the Mediterranean Sea.

13. •A food chain shows the feeding relationship between
different living things in a particular environment or
habitat.
•It shows how each living thing gets its food. It shows
who is eating who.
•All living things need food to give them the energy to
grow.
FOOD CHAIN

14. 1. Producers, also known as autotrophs, are the
foundation of food chains. (Plants and some
protists)
2. Consumers feed on other living things. There
are three types of consumers:
Primary consumers, such as grasshoppers or giraffes, feed on
plants (producers) Herbivores
Secondary consumers, such as snakes, feed on primary
consumers. Carnivores and omnivores (They can be both
predators and prey)
TROPHIC LEVELS: It is the position
an organism holds in a food chain

15. 3. Detritivores and decomposersDetritivores and decomposers make up the
last part of food chains.
Detritivores are organisms that eat non-living
plant and animal remains
 scavengers such as vultures eat
dead animals.
Decomposers, like fungi and bacteria,
complete the food chain.
They turn organic wastes, into inorganic
materials (soil).
This starts a whole new series of food chains.

16. FOOD CHAINS

17. FOOD WEB
• Within ecosystems there is an interdependence
of species which live off
each other.
• These interdependencies form food webs.
• Each food web is made up of many
interlinked food chains

18. • Food webs all produce energy biomass (or food
available for the next trophic level).
• Producers in the lowest trophic level produce the
most biomass.
• A healthy food web has an abundance of
autotrophs, many herbivores, and few carnivores
and omnivores. This balance helps the ecosystem
maintain and recycle biomass.
• When a link in a food web is damaged, or extinct,
it can affect an entire chain of other species with
unpredictable consequences.