Components of the Ecosystem

• Ecosystem


  The interaction between the environment and the living organisms
• Environment is the area where living organisms live
• Ecosystem is the community where the biotic and abiotic elements interact with each other
• Abiotic components


  • Climatic
  • Edaphic
• Climatic abiotic components


  Non-living factors which are responsible for determining the climatic conditions of an area
• Edaphic abiotic components


  Abiotic factors relating to the physical or chemical composition of the soil found in a particular area
• Temperature


  • It greatly affects the metabolism of organisms
  • Some animals and plants can bear extreme heat or cold, others can only survive well in moderate temperature ranges
• How animals respond to environmental temperatures

  • Homeotherms (can maintain a constant body temperature)
• Sunlight


  Provides all the energy for ecosystems, necessary for photosynthesis, plays a role in the production of oxygen and an area's temperature
• Plants classified by photoperiod

  • Short day plants (like chrysanthemum, rice, soybean, onion)
  • Long day plants (like spinach, lettuce, wheat)
  • Day-neutral plants (like cucumber, corn, tomato)
• Photoperiodism


  The developmental responses of plants to the relative lengths of light and dark periods
• Phytochrome


  Photoreceptor protein that senses seasonal changes in night length, or photoperiod, which they take as signals to flower
• Plants classified by light requirement

  • Heliophytes - plants with high light requirement
• Water


  A very important abiotic factor, often said that "water is life", critical for cellular processes, covers 70 percent of the Earth's surface and falls as rain or snow over land
• Animals' adaptations to retain water

  • Some have oily or waxy skin to retain moisture
  • Freshwater organisms excrete dilute urine
  • Marine animals sneeze out water vapor to maintain solute concentrations
• Plants classified by water requirements

  • Hydrophytes (can live floating or submerged into the water)
  • Mesophytes (are terrestrial plants that can live in an average supply of water)
  • Xerophytes (can live in limited amount of water, they are extremophiles that live in dry habitats)
• Hydrophytes


  • Roots are poorly developed as in Hydrilla or absent as in Wolffia
  • Plant body is greatly reduced as in Lemna
  • Submerged leaves are narrow or finely divided, e.g. Hydrilla
  • Floating leaves have long leaf stalks to enable the leaves move up and down in response to changes in water level, e.g. Lotus
  • Air chambers provide buoyancy and mechanical support to plants as in Eichhornia (swollen and spongy petiole)
• Xerophytes


  • They have well developed roots that grow very deep and reach the layers where water is available, as in Calotropis
  • They store water in succulent water storing parenchymatous tissues, e.g. Opuntia, Aloe vera
  • They have small sized leaves with waxy coating, e.g. Acacia
  • In some plants, leaves are modified into spines, e.g. Opuntia
  • Some of the xerophytes complete their life cycle within a very short period when sufficient moisture is available
• Properties of Water


  • Water exists in nature in three phases
  • Water is a universal solvent
  • Water has high surface tension
  • Water exhibit capillary action
  • Water has high specific heat
  • Water has a neutral pH
• Wind


  A moving air caused by differences by air pressure due to uneven heating on the Earth's surface by the Sun, influences the rate of evaporation and transpiration, can move soil particles, water or other abiotic factors, as well as ecosystem's organisms, vital for pollination and seed dispersal
• Soil


  An abiotic factor since it is mostly made up of small particles of rock mixed with decomposed plants and animals, serves as a habitat for many organisms and source of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus, different from place to place, thus can be an important factor in determining the kind of organisms in a certain area
• Biotic components


  • Autotrophs (organisms that produce their own food from an energy source, such as the sun (photoautotrophs) and inorganic compounds (chemoautotrophs))
  • Heterotrophs (organisms that consume other organisms as a food source)
• Major biological components


  • Producers (autotrophs or self-feeders)
  • Consumers (heterotrophs or other-feeders, can be primary consumers (herbivore), secondary consumers (carnivore) or tertiary consumers or omnivores)
  • Decomposers (includes bacteria and fungi that recycle organic matter in the environment)
  • Detritivores (the detritus feeders)
• Trophic level


  The position occupied by an organism in a food chain, producers are usually found at the base of an ecological pyramid and thus, the first trophic level, primary consumers make up the second trophic level, secondary consumers make up the third trophic level and so on
• Types of food chains

  • Grazing food chain
  • Detrital Food chain
• In ecosystems, some consumers feed on a single species, but most consumers have multiple food sources. In this way, individual food chain becomes interconnected to form food web
• Types of Ecological Pyramids

  • Pyramid of Numbers
  • Pyramid of Biomass
  • Pyramid of Energy
• The abiotic components are non-living factors that influence life, such as water, air, light, temperature, soil, nutrients, and pH.
• The biotic component includes all living organisms, such as plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, viruses, protists, etc.
• Types of soil and their soil particles

  Sand - largest particle size

  Silt - medium particle size

  Clay - smallest particle size
• Soil profile

  1. O: organic matter
  2. A: mineral soil mixed with organic matter; topsoil
  3. B: zone of illuviation; accumulation of clay transported from above
  4. C: partially weathered parent material
  5. R: bedrock; unweathered parent material
• • Poikilotherms (their body temperature changes when environmental temperature changes)
• • Heterotherms (can regulate their body temperature at a constant level some of the time, usually hibernating mammals)
• • Sciophytes - plants with low light requirement
• • Soil pH (an indication of the acidity or alkalinity of soil, plays a critical role to the absorption and utilization of essential trace elements required for healthy plant growth)
• Soil color (indicates the composition of the soil and provides insights into the environmental conditions, formation processes and other influences on the soil)