Lecture
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE
Prepared by Dr. NGUYEN Ngoc Vinh
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3. Ecosystems: What Are They
and How Do They Work?
1. What is ecology?
2. What keep us and other organisms alive?
3. What are the major components of an ecosystem?
4. What happens to energy in an ecosystem?
5. What happens to matter in an ecosystem?
6. How do scientists study ecosystems?
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3.1. What is ecology?
Concept 3.1.
Ecology is the study of how organisms interact with one
another and with their physical environment of matter and
energy.
Cells Are the Basic Units of Life
Ø Cell is the smallest and most
fundemantal structural and
functional unit of life.
Ø The idea that all living things
are composed of cells is
called the cell theory
Ø Organisms may consist of a
single cell (bacteria, for in-
stance) or huge numbers of
cells, as is the case for most
plants and animals
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Ecologists Study Connections in Nature
Ø Ecology is the study of how organisms interact with their
living (biotic) environment of other organisms and with
their nonliving (abiotic) environment of soil, water, other
forms of matter, and energy mostly from the sun. In effect, it
is a study of connections in nature
Ecologists Study Connections in Nature
Ø Species is a set of individuals that can mate and produce
fertile offspring.
Ø Population is a group of individuals of the same species that
live in the same place at the same time
Ø Community, or biological community, consists of all the
populations of different species that live in a particular place
Ø Ecosystem is a community of different species interacting
with one another and with their nonliving environment
Ø Biosphere consists of the parts of the earth’s air, water, and
soil where life is found
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Ø Some levels
of
organization
of matter in
nature.
Ø Ecology
focuses on
the top five
of these
levels.
2. What keep us and other organisms alive?
Concept 3.2.
Life is sustained by the flow of energy from the sun through
the biosphere, the cycling of nutrients within the biosphere,
and gravity.
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Earth’s life-support system
has four major components
Ø Atmosphere
- Troposphere (inner layer
contains most of what we
breath, also contains
greenhous gases).
- Stratosphere (outer layer-
protects us from sun‘s UV,
also contains the ozone).
Ø Hydrosphere – consists of
water on or near the
earth’s surface
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Natural Capital: Earth’s Four
Life-Support Systems
Ø Geosphere –
composed of a
hot core, a
thick, mantle
and a thin outer
crust.
Ø Biosphere –
wherever life is
found within
the other three
spheres
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Three factors sustain life on earth
Ø The one-way flow of high-quality energy from the
sun
- Solar energy principle of sustainability
- Greenhouse effect
Ø The cycling of matter or nutrients
- Chemical cycling principle of sustainability
Ø Gravity
- Allows to hold onto planet’s atmosphere and
helps to enable the movement and cycling of
chemicals through the biosphere and organisms.
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What happens to solar energy
reaching the earth?
Ø UV, visible and IR
energy.
Ø Radiation
- Absorbed by ozone
- Abzorbed by the
earth
- Reflected by the
earth
- Radiated by the
atmosphere as
heat
Ø Natural
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greenhouse effect
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What Happens to Solar Energy
Reaching the Earth?
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3.3. What Are the Major Components
of an Ecosystem?
Ø Concept 3.3A. Ecosystems contain living (biotic) and
nonliving (abiotic) components.
Ø Concept 3.3B. Some organisms produce the nutrients they
need, others get their nutrients by consuming other
organisms, and some recycle nutrients back to producers by
decomposing the wastes and remains of organisms.
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Ecosystems have living
and nonliving components
Two types of components
make up the biosphere and
its ecosystems:
Ø abiotic, consists of
nonliving components
such as water, air,
nutrients, rocks, heat,
and solar energy
Ø biotic, consists of living
and once living
biological com-
ponents—plants,
animals, and microbes 15
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Range of tolerance for a population
Organisms that:
– Produce their own nutrition
– Satisfy nutritional requirements by consuming other
organisms
– Decompose waste and remains of organisms thereby
recycling nutrients
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Several abiotic factors can limit
population growth
Limiting factor principle
Ø Too much or too little of any abiotic factor can limit or prevent
growth of a population, even if all other factors are at or near
the optimal range of tolerance
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Ecosystems have several
important components
Ø Organisms that:
– Produce their own nutrition
– Satisfy nutritional requirements by consuming other
organisms
– Decompose waste and remains of organisms thereby recycling
nutrients
Ø Ecology: organisms interact with each other and with their
non-living environment
Ø Biotic (living) and abiotic (non-living) parts of the
environment exhibit sequential levels of organization
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Producers and consumers are the
living components of ecosystems
Ø Organisms belong to feeding/tropic levels depending on their
source of nutrients
Ø Producers (autotrophs – plants) use photosynthesis to make
nutrients
Ø Consumers (heterotrophs) feed on other organisms or their
remains can be:
- Primary consumers – herbivores (plant eaters),
- Secondary consumers – carnivores (meat eaters)
- Third – and higher level consumers are carnivores (that
feed on the flesh of other carnivores
- Omnivores (eat both plants and meat)
- Decomposers (heterotrophs) release nutrient from dead
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bodies of plants and animals
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Living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic)
components
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Nutrient cycling
Ø Some organisms produce the nutrients they need
§ Plants (photosynthesis)
§ Bacteria (chemosynthesis)
Ø Others get their nutrients by consuming other organisms
§ Consumers
- Primary (plant – eater, herbivores)
- Secondary, Tertiary, etc. (meat eaters - carnivores)
Ø Some recycle nutrients back to producers by decomposing the
wastes and remains of organisms
§ Decomposers and Detritivores
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Detritivores and decomposers on a log
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Energy flow and nutrient cycling sustain
ecosystems & the biosphere
Ø One-way
energy flow
Ø Nutrient
cycling of
key materials
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3.4. What Happens To Energy in
an Ecosystem?
Ø Concept 3.4A. Energy flows through ecosystems in food
chains and webs.
Ø Concept 3.3B. As energy flows through ecosystems in food
chains and webs, the amount of chemical energy available to
organisms at each succeeding feeding level decreases.
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3.4. What Happens To Energy in
an Ecosystem?
Ø Energy flows through ecosystems via movement between
trophic levels through food chains and food webs
– The quality of energy available to organisms decreases as
each successive trophic level is reached, because so much
energy (heat) is lost moving from one level to the next.
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Energy Flows Through Ecosystems
in Food Chains and Food Webs
Ø Food chains
– A sequence of organisms, each of which serves as a
nutritional source for the next (big fish eat little fish)
Ø Food webs
– A complex network of interconnected food chains
Ø Pyramid of energy flow
– Energy flow through various trophic levels
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A Food Chain
First Second Third Fourth
Trophic Trophic Trophic Trophic
Level Level Level Level
Producers Primary Secondary Tertiary
(plants) consumers consumers consumers
(herbivores) (carnivores) (top carnivores)
Heat Heat Heat Heat
Solar
energy
Heat
Heat Heat
Decomposers and
detritus feeders 27
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Simplified food web in the Antarctic
Greatly simplified
food web in the
Antarctic
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A Generalized Pyramid of Energy Flow
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Some Ecosystems Produce Plant Matter
Faster than Others Do
Ø GPP (gross primary productivity)
– The rate that an ecosystem’s producers convert energy
into biomass
Ø NPP (net primary productivity)
– The rate that producers use photosynthesis to produce
and store chemical energy minus the rate at which they
use energy for aerobic respiration
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Some Ecosystems Produce Plant Matter
Faster than Others Do
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Some Ecosystems Produce Plant Matter
Faster than Others Do
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Some Ecosystems Produce Plant Matter
Faster than Others Do
Ø Terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems differ in their NPP (net
primary productivity)
– Despite low NPP, oceans produce most of the world’s
biomass because of their vast size
– Tropical rainforests have high NPP – much is lost through
natural capital degradation
Ø Only plant matter represented by NPP is available as
nutrients for consumers
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3.5. What Happens To Matter
in an Ecosystem?
Ø Concept 3.5. Matter, in the form of nutrients, cycles within
and among ecosystems and the biosphere, and human
activities are altering these chemical cycles.
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3.5. What Happens To Matter
in an Ecosystem?
Ø Matter in the form of nutrients and energy are naturally
cycled and recycled through ecosystems and the biosphere
Ø Biogeochemical cycling, driven by incoming solar radiation
and earth’s gravity continually, moves nutrients and energy
through air, water, soils, rocks, and living organisms
- Hydrologic
- Carbon
- Nitrogen
- Phosphorus
- Sulfur
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The Water Cycle – Evaporation
and Transpiration
Ø The hydrologic cycle or water cycle collects, purifies, and
distributes the earth’s fixed supply of water
– The cycle of natural water quality renewal
Ø Incoming solar radiation moves water at the surface into the
atmosphere through evaporation
– Mainly via transpiration (evaporation from the surface of
plants)
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The Water Cycle – Precipitation
and Surface Runoff
Ø Condensation in the atmosphere and effects of gravity
create precipitation which returns water to the earth’s
surface
– Surface runoff
– Aquifers and ground water
Ø Only a very small portion of earth’s water is fresh water
– The rest is in oceans, stored as ice or is too deep to access
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Natural Capital – The Hydrologic Cycle
All the world ‘s water
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How Do Humans Alter the Water Cycle?
Ø By withdrawing fresh water resources faster than natural
processes replenish it
Ø By replacing forests/vegetation with urban development –
reducing transpiration and increasing runoff
Ø By draining and filling in wetlands, which disturbs the
renewal abilities of the hydrologic cycle
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Carbon Cycle depends on
photosynthesis and respiration
Ø Atmospheric carbon dioxide, a key component of the carbon
cycle, has a significant temperature effect (greenhouse
effect)
Ø How does carbon cycle through the biosphere?
– Photosynthesis by producers
– Aerobic respiration by producers, consumers and
decomposers
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Natural Capital: The Global Carbon Cycle
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How Do Humans Alter the Carbon Cycle?
Ø By extracting and burning fossil fuels at a much higher rate
than they are naturally formed
– This adds carbon dioxide to the atmosphere
Ø By clear cutting forests faster than they re-grow
– This destroys carbon-absorbing vegetation
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The Nitrogen Cycle: Bacteria in Action
Ø How does nitrogen cycle through the biosphere?
– Atmospheric nitrogen cannot be absorbed or used
directly by most organisms
– Bacteria convert the nitrogen into a usable form so it
becomes a useful plant nutrient
– Consumers (herbivores) and decomposers convert the
nitrogen back into nitrogen gas which is then released
into the atmosphere
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Natural Capital: The Nitrogen Cycle
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How Do Humans Alter the Nitrogen Cycle?
Ø By burning fossil fuels that adds nitric oxide to the
atmosphere
– Nitrogen dioxide gas/nitric acid vapor causes acid rain
Ø By removing atmospheric nitrogen to make fertilizer
– Agricultural runoff from fields into the water supply
leads to algal overgrowth that disrupts the oxygen
balance in aquatic systems
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The Phosphorus Cycle
Ø How does phosphorus cycle through the biosphere?
– Cycles through soils, rocks, water and plants, but not
through the atmosphere
– Can be temporarily removed from natural cycling when
washed into oceans and trapped in marine sediments
– As with nitrogen, contributes to agricultural runoff
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Natural Capital: The Phosphorus Cycle
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How Do Humans Alter the
Phosphorus Cycle?
Ø By mining phosphorus deposits to make fertilizer
Ø Through clearing of tropical forests, which reduces
phosphorus in the topsoil
Ø Through agricultural runoff and topsoil erosion, which
disturbs biogeochemical cycling
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The Sulfur Cycle
Ø How does sulfur cycle through the biosphere?
– Via mining of ore deposits/ocean sediments
– From active volcanoes – as poisonous hydrogen sulfide
and sulfur dioxide gases (SO2).
– Through decomposition of organic matter in wetlands
– From sea spray, dust storms, and forest fires
– Absorption by plant roots
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Natural Capital: The Sulfur Cycle
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How Do Humans Alter the Sulfur Cycle?
Ø By releasing sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere
– Burning sulfur containing coal and oil in power plants to
generate electricity
– Refining sulfur containing oil to make gasoline
– Mining and smelting metals from sulfur deposits
Ø The key components of acid rain are nitrogen dioxide and
sulfuric acid
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3.6. How do scientist study ecosystem?
Ø Concept 3.6. Scientists use field research, laboratory
research, and mathematical and other models to learn about
ecosystems.
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Some scientists study nature directly
Ø Field research: “muddy -
boots biology”.
Ø New technologies
available
- Remote sensors
- Geographic information
system (GIS) software
- Digital satellite imaging
Ø 2005, Global Earth
Observation System of
System (GEOSS) 53
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Some scientists study ecosystems
in the laboratory
Ø Symplified system
carried out in
- Culture tubes and
bottles
- Aquaria tanks
- Greenhouse
- Inddor and
outdoor chambers
Ø Support by field
research
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Some scientists use models
to simulate ecosystems
Ø Computer simulations and projections
- Simulate ecosystems
- Help scientists understan large and very complex systems
- Project possible changes in environmental conditions
- Analyze the effectiveness of various alternative solutions
to environmental problems.
- GREEN CAREER: ecosystem modeler
Ø Field and laboratory research needed for baseline data
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We need to learn more about the
health of the world’s ecosystems
Ø Determine condition of the world’s ecosystems.
Ø More baseline data needed
- To see how ecosystems are changing
- Develop strategies for preventing or slowing ecosystem’s
degradation
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Thank you for your attention
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