This document provides an overview of ecosystems and their components. It discusses: 1) What an ecosystem is, including the biotic and abiotic components that interact within an ecosystem. 2) The different types of biotic components - producers, consumers (primary, secondary, tertiary), and decomposers and their roles in the ecosystem. 3) How energy and matter flow through ecosystems via food chains, food webs, and biogeochemical cycles like carbon and nitrogen cycles.

1. Environmental science
UNIT-I
ECOSYSTEMS
MALLA REDDY ENGINEERING COLLEGE FOR WOMEN
(Autonomous Institution – UGC Govt. of India)
(Permanently Affiliated to JNTUH, Approved by AICTE,
Accredited by NBA and NAAC with A grade– ISO 9001- 2015 Certified) NIRF India
Ranking 2018, Accepted by MHRD, GOVT. of India, AAA+ Rated by CAREER 360

3. WHAT IS ECO SYSTEM

4. WHAT IS ECOSYSTEM
ECHOSYSTEM IS A SYSTEM OF
LIVING THINGS THAT
INTERACT WITH EACH OTHER
AND WITH THE PHYSICAL
WORLD

5. CLASSIFICATION OF ECOSYSTEM

6. KINDS OF ECO SYSTEM

7. STRUCTURE OF ECO SYSTEM

8. BIOTIC COMPONENTS OF ECOSYSTEM
Producers (or autotrophs)
Green plants and some bacteria which manufacturer their own food
Animals which obtain their food from producers
 Primary consumers
 Secondary consumers
 Tertiary consumers
Decomposers
Bacteria and fungi that decompose dead organic matter and convert
it into simple parts

9. Producers:
Autotrophs,
chemoautotrophs
BIOTIC
COMPONENTS
DECOMPOSERS
MICROCOMSUMERS
: BACTERIA,FUNGI
COMSUMER
PRIMARY,
SECONDARY,
TERTIARY ETC.

10. ABIOTIC COMPONENTS OF ECOSYSTEM
Physical Factor: Rainfall
Sunlight
Humidity
Temperature
Nature of soil
water currents
Chemical factors: Salinity
Nutrients present in soil
Oxygen dissolved in water
Percentage of water and air in soil
Limiting factor: Food
Water
Shelter
Space
are the limiting factors for growth of population of
human and animals

11. BIOTIC COMPONENTS - PRODUCERS
Producers are the beginning of a simple
food chain. Producers are plants and
vegetables

12. THE PRODUCERS
 All energy comes from the
Sun and plants are the
ones who make food with
that energy. They use the
Process of photosynthesis.
 Plants also make nutrients
for other organisms to eat

13. BIOTIC COMPONENTS - CONSUMERS
Consumers are the next link in a food chain.
There are three levels of consumers

14. CONSUMERS
Those living members of ecosystem which
consume the food synthesizer by the producers
are called consumers. Under this category are
included all kinds of animals that are found in
ecosystem. There are different categories of
consumers such as:
Primary or first order consumers
Secondary or second order consumers
Tertiary or third order consumers
Parasites, scavengers or saprobes

15. PRIMARY CONSUMERS
These are purely herbivourous animals that are dependent for
their food on producers or green plants. Insects, rodents,
rabbit, deer, buffalo, goat, etc.Are some of the common
herbivourous in the terrestrial ecosystem. They are often
called as “key industry animals” because,the herbivorous serve
as the chief food source of carnivorous.

16. SECONDARY CONSUMERS
These are carnivores and omnivores. Carnivoures are
the flesh eating animals and the omnivores are the
animals that are adapted to consume herbivores as
well as plants as their food. Like crow, fox, wolves, dogs,
cats, snakes, etc.

17. TERITARY CONSUMERS

18. BIOTIC COMPONENTS - DECOMPOSERS

19. FUNCTIONS OF ECOSYSTEM

20. FOOD CHAIN

21. FOOD CHAIN

25. FOOD WEB

27. FLOW OF ENERGY

30. ECOLOGICAL PYRAMIDS

32. PYRAMIDS OF NUMBERS

34. PYRAMIDS OF BIO MASS

36. PYRAMIDS OF ENERGY

39. BIO GEO CHEMICAL CYCLES

42. TYPES OF BIO GEO CHEMICAL CYCLES

43. SEDIMENTARY CYCLE-Sedimentary cycle include the
leaching of minerals & salt’s from the earth’s crust, which
they settle as sediment or rock before the cycle repeats.
Sedimentary cycle includes;
a) PHOSPHORUS CYCLE
b) SULPHUR CYCLE
c) IRON CYCLE
d) CALCIUM CYCLE
• Sedimentary cycle vary from one elements to another, but each cycle
consist fundamentally of a solution phase & a sediment phase.

44. NITROGEN CYCLE

45. PROCESS OF NITROGEN CYCLE

48. PHOSPOROUS CYCLE

49. PROCESS OF PHOSPOROUS CYCLE

52. CARBON CYCLE
One of the most complex cycles on Earth

53. •Carbon just like all other nutrients cycles from
one reservoir to another through many years.
•Eg: Carbon enters plants as CO2 which is
incorporated into organic molecules by a
process called photosynthesis
•When organisms respire, a portion of this
carbon is returned to the atmosphere as CO2
CARBON CYCLES

55. Bioaccumulation:
An increase in concentration of a pollutant from the environment to
the first organism in a food chain.
Biomagnification:
“The process where chemicals accumulate in organisms in
increasingly higher concentrations at successive trophic levels is called
biomagnification.”
•Food chain shows a unique property of bio magnification of some
chemicals.
•There Are several pesticides ,heavy metals and other chemicals which
are non-biodegradable in nature (they donot decompose by
microorganisms)
•As they pass through food chain from one trophic level to another
their concentration increases and leads to bio magnification.
BIO MAGNIFICATION

56. •Biomagnification results in storage of such toxic chemicals in
organisms in higher concentrations than are normally found in the
environment.
•As you move up the food pyramid energy may go down but
pesticide accumulation goes up.
•In order for bioaccumulation to occur, the pollutant must be:
Long-lived
Mobile
Soluble in fats
Biologically active
BIO MAGNIFICATION

58. BUILD UP OF DDT CONCENTRATION
 Biomagnification of DDT was observed in some birds like as
Osprey, in the result of sharp decline in their population.
 The young ones of these birds were found to hatch in a
premature condition which led to their death.
 This was later found to be due to biomagnification of DDT
through the food chain.
 DDT this is one of the pesticide, a chemical used to control pests
in very low concentration.
 The concentration of DDT was magnified several thousand times
in the birds which caused thinning of shells in their birds eggs,
causing deaths.
 Means, animals occupying higher tropic levels are at greater risk
of biomagnification of toxic chemicals.

59. Performing of photosynthesis (in which solar energy is captured by
primary producers and converts into chemical energy)
 Maintenance of the Bio – Geo Chemical Cycles
Maintains of Hydrological Cycle or Water cycle including
purification
 Cycling of vital chemicals like Carbon, Nitrogen, Phosphorus,
and Sulphur
 Control of Climate
Absorbing of CO2 from atmosphere.
Purifying air by releasing oxygen
Treating waste water
Conserving soil , creating soil ,building up organic matter and
preventing soil erosion.
ECO –SYSTEM SERVICES & VALUES

60. ECO –SYSTEM SERVICES
•Waste Removal and Detoxification
•Natural pest and Disease Control
•Providing habitat
•Control of pest
•Control of population
•Proving food ,medicines ,fuel ,fertilizers ,industrial raw materials
etc
•Maintenance of food chains, food webs, ecological pyramids etc.

61. Values: A team of ecologists, economists and geographers have
tries to answer this question.
•The team first divided the Earth’s surface into 16 major biomes and
aquatic life zones.
•They have listed 17 goods and services provided by nature in each
of these areas and examined over 100 studies that have to put a
money value on such services
•Finally they came up with an estimate of the monetary value of eco
– system services
•Their conclusion was that the eco – system services were worth
more than US$ 36 trillion per annum.
•This is comparable to the annual Gross World Product that is
estimated to US $ 39 trillion.
•Some experts believe that this is a conservative figure and that the
real worth of nature could be much more, even a million times
more.
ECOSYSTEM VALVES