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Republic of the Philippines

PANGASINAN STATE UNIVERSITY


Urdaneta City Campus
Urdaneta, Pangasinan
School of Advanced Studies

Course Code : SED 214


Course Title : ECOLOGY
Topic : ENERGY FLOW
Discussant : KAYCIN G. DUZON
Professor : DR. RACQUEL PAMBID

Energy flow in an Ecosystem

Energy flow is the transfer of energy from one organism to another in an ecosystem.

Nearly all of the energy that drives ecosystems ultimately comes from the sun. The organisms
in an ecosystem that capture the suns electromagnetic energy and convert it into chemical
energy are called producers.

Producers - organisms that produce their own food. There are two ways of producing
food energy:

Photosynthesis: plants on land, phytoplankton in the surface ocean, and some other
organisms.
Chemosynthesis: bacteria at hydrothermal vents.

Primary productivity is the rate at which energy is converted by photosynthetic and


chemosynthetic autotrophs to organic substances. The total amount of productivity in a region or
system is gross primary productivity. A certain amount of organic material is used to sustain
the life of producers; what remains is net productivity.

Net primary production is the rate at which all the plants in an ecosystem produce net useful
chemical energy; it is equal to the difference between the rate at which the plants in an
ecosystem produce useful chemical energy (GPP) and the rate at which they use some of that
energy during respiration.

Many organisms cannot photosynthesize


Consumers - an organism that feed on or consumes other organisms. They use the
food energy that was created by producers.

a) Primary consumer organisms that feed directly on producers. These animals are
called herbivores.
e.g. pond snail, insect larva and zooplanktons
b) Secondary consumer they are the carnivores which feed on primary consumers.
However there are animals that eat producers (plants) and primary consumers, they
are called omnivores.
e.g. water beetles, tigers, etc.
c) Tertiary consumer - they are large carnivores which feed on the secondary and
primary consumers as well as producers, e.g. man

Scavengers special type of consumer that feeds on dead animals.


Detritivores -

Decomposer - they are mainly bacteria, fungi and some flagellates that change wastes and
dead organisms into nutrients that can once again be used by plants and animals.

they are the green plants which absorb solar energy to synthesize complex organic compounds
from simple inorganic substances by photosynthesis, they act as the ultimate food source to all
the
heterotrophs.
: other producers are green algae and blue green algae, they are mainly found in aquatic
habitat, such as freshwater and marine water, they are the most important producers in earth
(as 70% of the earth surface is covered with water).
Plants are called producers. This is because they produce their own food! They do this by using
light energy from the Sun, carbon dioxide from the air and water from the soil to produce food -
in the form of glucouse/sugar. The process is called photosynthesis.

Feeding relationships and Ecological Models

Energy and essential materials are therefore transferred from producers to consumers through
the feeding processes. The transfer of energy from sun to producer to consumers can be shown
through ecological models.

Food chain : shows how each living thing gets food, and how nutrients and energy are passed
from creature to creature. Each step in a food chain is called a trophic level.
A sequence of organisms each feeding on the next, showing how energy is transferred
from one organism to another.
Food chains do not exist in nature. They simply show feeding relationships

The trophic level of an organism is the position it occupies in a food chain. The
word trophic derives from the Greek (troph) referring to food or feeding.

Trophic level : organisms in a food chain occupy different trophic levels, which indicate
their place in the energy flow through the community. Organisms whose food is obtained from
plants by the same number of steps in the food chain belong to the same trophic level

Ecosystem Producer Primary secondary Tertiary


Consumer consumer consumer

freshwater pond green algae protozoa mosquito larva fish


rocky pond sea weeds molluscs starfish sea birds
Grassland grass grasshopper lizard snake
Woodland green plants caterpillars sparrow hawk

However, do not usually feed on just one type of organisms


in general, the food chains in an ecosystem are not isolated, but are interconnected with one
another, i.e. an herbivore may feed on several species of plants, and/ or be consumed by many
consumers and so on, such a number of interconnected food chains is known as food web
2. Food web several interconnected food chain.
- Many animals are part of more than one food chain in an ecosystem because they
eat or are eaten by several organisms. Interconnected food chains are illustrated in a model
called a food web.

Are very useful when figuring out what may happen when a species is removed from or
added to an ecosystem
If a species is removed the number of animals that would normally eat it would decrease,
why?
The introduction of a new species can also dramatically alter the food web as
new feeding patterns are established

The feeding relationships between organisms at different trophic level within a community can
be represented by ecological pyramids.

A much more accurate display of who eats who


A representation of the feeding relationships within a community.
Highly complex consumers feed on many species
As in food chains, the arrow points from the thing being eaten to the thing eating it

3. Ecological Pyramids

The concept of ecological pyramid was developed by Charles Elton; these pyramids are also
known as Eltonian pyramids.
The pyramids are a graphical representation which depicts the number of organisms, biomass
and productivity at each trophic level. All ecological pyramids begin at the bottom with the
produces and proceed through different trophic levels.

Ecological pyramids begin with the producers at the bottom like plants and they proceed to
various trophic levels like herbivores consume plants, carnivores prey on herbivores and so on.
The highest level is at the top of the food chain.

Ecological pyramids - (or food pyramid) is a model that shows the loss of energy from one
trophic level to another. When one organism consumes another, the energy stored in the food
organism is transferred to the consumer. However, not all of this energy is incorporated into the
consumers tissues. Between 80 and 90 percent of it is used for chemical reactions and is lost as
heat. This means ecosystems can support fewer organisms at higher trophic levels, as less
energy reaches these levels. The producers (green plants) form the base of the pyramids can be
structured according to numbers of organisms, total biomass, or total energy flow at each trophic
level.

- is a graphical representation designed to show the biomass or bio


productivity at each trophic level in a given ecosystem.

There are three types of Ecological Pyramids

a) Pyramid of Numbers
b) Pyramid of Biomass
c) Pyramid of Energy

a) Pyramid of numbers
The population of each organism in a food chain can be shown in a sort of bar chart called a
pyramid of numbers. The more organisms there are, the wider the bar. The producer in the food
chain always goes at the bottom of the pyramid of numbers.

Think about this food chain:

clover snail thrush hawk

Clover is a plant and it is the producer in this food chain.


Its bar goes at the bottom of the pyramid:
Energy is lost to the surroundings as we go from one level to the next, so there are fewer
organisms at each level in this food chain. A lot of clover is needed to support the snail
population. A thrush eats lots of snails, and a hawk eats lots of thrushes, so the population of
hawks is very small.

Other pyramid shapes

Sometimes the pyramid of numbers doesn't look like a pyramid at all. This could happen if the
producer is a large plant such as a tree, or if one of the animals is very small. Remember,
though, that whatever the situation, the producer still goes at the bottom of the pyramid.

Here are two examples like this:

An oak tree is very large so many insects can feed on it Fleas are very small and lots of
them can feed on a rabbit

A pyramid of numbers indicates the number of individuals in each trophic level. The number of
organisms in each trophic level is usually smaller than that of the one they are feeding on thus
can be expressed in the form of a pyramid.

For diagrammatic purposes the number of organisms in a given trophic level can be represented
as a rectangle whose length is proportional to the number of organisms in a given area

the progressive loss of energy at each trophic level of a food chain puts a natural decrease on
the total weight and total number of living organisms that exist at each successive level in the
chain

b) Pyramid of biomass

Biomass
The dry mass of an organism is called its biomass. The total biomass at a particular step in a
food chain is always less than the total biomass at the step before it. Let's look again at the food
chain:
oak tree insect woodpecker
The biomass of the oak tree is the greatest in the chain, and the biomass of the woodpecker is
the least. We can show information like this using a pyramid of biomass.
Pyramids
Let's look at a more complex food chain:
oak tree caterpillar blue tit sparrow hawk
Oak trees are very large, but caterpillars are very small. One oak tree can feed many caterpillars,
but many caterpillars are needed to feed a blue tit, and many blue tits are needed to feed a
sparrow hawk. If we draw a pyramid of numbers for this food chain, it looks like pyramid 1. Note
there's only one oak tree, but lots of caterpillars indicated by the shape of the pyramid.
The wider the bar, the more organisms there are. Remember that energy is lost at each step in a
food chain.
Pyramid of numbers Pyramid of biomass

If we draw a pyramid of biomass, it looks like pyramid 2. Note the large biomass of the one
oak tree, compared with the small biomass of lots of caterpillars, indicated by the shape of the
pyramid.

The wider the bar, the more biomass there is. Pyramids of biomass always have this shape (but
pyramids of numbers can be any shape).

the graphical representation of the trophic structure for a community of organisms in terms of
the biomass.
Biomass pyramids show how much biomass (the amount of living or organic matter present in an
organism) is present in the organisms at each trophic level,

c. Pyramid of Energy
An energy pyramid is a graphical representation of how energy flows in an ecosystem The
pyramid consists of trophic, or nutritional, levels. It shows how energy decreases and becomes
less available for organisms as it enters every trophic level, as well as the amount of energy lost
to the atmosphere in the form of heat.

Energy pyramids begin with producers on the bottom (such as plants) and proceed through the
various trophic levels (such as herbivores that eat plants, then carnivores that eat herbivores,
then carnivores that eat those carnivores, and so on). The highest level is the top of the food
chain.

Productivity : Refers to the amount of energy or living materials fixed in a population, or a


trophic level, or an entire ecosystem in a given time
In ecology, productivity or production refers to the rate of generation of biomass in
an ecosystem. It is usually expressed in units of mass per unit surface (or volume) per unit time,
for instance grams per square metre per day (g m 2 d1). The mass unit may relate to dry matter
or to the mass of carbon generated.
a) Gross primary productivity, or GPP, is the rate at which solar energy is captured in sugar
molecules during photosynthesis (energy captured per unit area per unit time). Producers such
as plants use some of this energy for metabolism/cellular respiration and some for growth
(building tissues).

Gross primary productivity : rate of dry matter production by photosynthesis in


an ecosystem, it does not represent the actual amount of food potentially available to
heterotrophs because some of the organic matters are used to meet plant respiration and
metabolism

b) Net primary productivity, or NPP, is gross primary productivity minus the rate of energy
loss to metabolism and maintenance. In other words, it's the rate at which energy is stored as
biomass by plants or other primary producers and made available to the consumers in the
ecosystem
Net primary productivity : it is the biomass which is incorporated into a plant community
during a specific time intervals, minus the part respired

Primary productivity
In ecology, productivity is the rate at which energy is added to the bodies of organisms in the
form of biomass. Biomass is simply the amount of matter that's stored in the bodies of a group
of organisms. Productivity can be defined for any trophic level or other group, and it may take
units of either energy or biomass. There are two basic types of productivity: gross and net.
To illustrate the difference, let's consider primary productivity (the productivity of the primary
producers of an ecosystem).
.
Plants typically capture and convert about 1.31.31, point, 3 - 1.6\%1.6%1, point, 6, percent of the
solar energy that reaches Earth's surface and use about a quarter of the captured energy for
metabolism and maintenance. So, around 1\%1%1, percent of the solar energy reaching Earth's
surface (per unit area and time) ends up as net primary productivity.
Net primary productivity varies among ecosystems and depends on many factors. These include
solar energy input, temperature and moisture levels, carbon dioxide levels, nutrient availability,
and community interactions (e.g., grazing by herbivores)^22start superscript, 2, end superscript.
These factors affect how many photosynthesizers are present to capture light energy and how
efficiently they can perform their role.
In terrestrial ecosystems, primary productivity ranges from about 2,2,2,
comma000000000\text{g/m}^2\text{/yr}g/m2/yrg, slash, m, start superscript, 2, end
superscript, slash, y, r in highly productive tropical forests and salt marshes to less
than 100100100 \text{g/m}^2\text{/yr}g/m2/yrg, slash, m, start superscript, 2, end superscript,
slash, y, r in some deserts. You can see how net primary productivity changes on shorter
timescales in the dynamic map below, which shows seasonal and year-to-year variations in net
primary productivity of terrestrial ecosystems across the globe.

[Note] Biomass is defined as the total dry weight of the total amount of living materials
presented at a trophic level

An ecological pyramid (also trophic pyramid, eltonian pyramid, energy pyramid, or


sometimes food pyramid).

while productivity pyramids show the production or turnover in biomass. There is also pyramid of
numbers which represent the number of organisms in each trophic level. They may be upright
(e.g. Grassland ecosystem), inverted (parasitic ecosystem) or dumbbell shaped (forest
ecosystem).

II. Energy flow :


as solar radiation passes through the biosphere, large parts are used to perform other
functions, only small parts can be used in photosynthesis

part of the primary productivity is used in the respiration of the producers, of the net primary
productivity, a portion is eaten by the primary consumers, the rest remains unused and is passed
as dead plant materials
of the food eaten by the primary consumers, some is assimilated and incorporated into the
body tissue while others are unabsorbed and are discarded in the form of faeces and other
wastes
the same loss of energy occurs when the energy is transferred from the primary consumers to
the secondary consumers

ENERGY FLOW AND NUTRIENT CYLCING IN ECOSYSTEM


The two major functions within an ecosystem are the transfer of energy through, and the
recycling of nutrients within the ecosystem

On A-Level syllabuses, there are two frequently-examined key principles:

1. The overriding importance of green plants in making energy available in the first place.
2. That only a small amount of the total energy received from the sun is captured by plants and
that the amount of energy available at each trophic level decreases.

Nearly all of the energy that drives ecosystems ultimately comes from the sun.
The organisms in an ecosystem that capture the suns electromagnetic energy and convert it
into chemical energy are called producers.

Organisms that can make glucose during photosynthesis are called PRODUCERS.
Organisms that cannot make their own glucose are called CONSUMERS.

The transfer of energy from sun to producer to consumers can be shown in a FOOD CHAIN.

Only a small fraction of the total energy which reaches the earth is captured by green plants.
This is because most of the energy is reflected or absorbed by the atmosphere. Much of the
energy which does penetrate the atmosphere does not hit plants. Some of the energy which is
intercepted by plants passes straight through leaves without hitting chloroplasts or is reflected
from plants or is of a wavelength which does not excite pigment molecules. As a result of these
losses, less than 1% of the total available energy is captured in photosynthesis.

The small amount of solar energy which is captured by green plants is absorbed by the
green pigment chlorophyll. During the process of photosynthesis, this solar energy is
transformed into chemical energy in the form of sugars using carbon dioxide and water. This
chemical energy is then available to animals, bacteria and fungi.
The light energy which is captured by chlorophyll molecules is used to generate ATP. However,
the plant uses most of this ATP in maintaining its own metabolism and since all metabolic
reactions are inefficient, much energy is lost as heat.

Gross primary production (GPP) is the total amount of energy or organic matter captured
or fixed by green plants, but respiratory losses (in the form of heat) mean that only net
primary
production (NPP) is available as the source of energy for animals which consume the plants
(herbivores).
In other words, NPP = GPP - R. In consuming plants, herbivores are in effect receiving light
energy in the form of organic molecules - carbohydrates, fats, proteins etc. and without the
process of photosynthesis, the vast majority of the animal kingdom would be unable to gain any
energy at all.

Green plants therefore represent trophic level 1 and are known as primary producers. These are
then eaten by primary consumers which use the complex organic molecules which make up the
body of the plant as their energy source. Organisms which feed on primary consumers are
termed secondary consumers and those that feed on secondary consumers are termed tertiary
consumers. This is shown diagrammatically in a food
chain (Fig 1).
Flow of Energy through Ecosystems
The sun is the ultimate source of energy on earth. The process of nuclear fusion in the sun
releases a huge amount of energy which reaches the earth in the form of electromagnetic
radiation. It is one small part of this electromagnetic radiation - visible light which is trapped
by photosynthetic organisms. Such organisms then convert this light energy into organic
substances which effectively makes solar energy available to the animal kingdom.

However, organisms do not usually feed on just one type of organism, so


food webs - interconnected food chains - are more realistic.

Only about 1-10% of the total energy contained in plants is obtained by


primary consumers. This is because:
1. Plants use most of the ATP they produce maintaining their own metabolism.
2. Some parts of the plant may be indigestible and the primary consumer therefore egests, in the
form of faeces, non-utilisable energy.
3. Any consumer does not eat all of any particular plant - roots for example may be left in
the ground and these represent lost energy

(Fig 2).
Similarly, these losses are repeated at every successive trophic level and it is this loss of energy
at each stage which results in declining numbers and biomass of organisms at each trophic level.
In other words, it is the loss of energy at each stage which gives rise to pyramids of numbers and
pyramids of biomass. All consumers are, however, entirely dependent on the green plants for
their source of energy. Primary consumers are directly dependent and secondary and tertiary
consumers are indirectly dependent on this initial capture of light energy. The energy
contained in dead organisms or in faeces is utilised by organisms which make up a saprophytic
food chain. Saprophytic organisms which feed on dead organic material - often use extra-
cellular digestion, that is,
Faeces
Energy lost
Grass
Man
RR
Cow does not eat all of the grass plant
Man does not eat all of the cow.
Fig 2. Energy transfer
CowSaprophytes
Death Death Death
R
Spruce tree Bark Beetle Chaffinch Sparrowhawk
Primary Primary Secondary Tertiary
Producer Consumer Consumer Consumer
2
they secrete enzymes onto the food material and then attempt to reabsorb some of the
products of digestion. Inevitably, some of the products of digestion - sugars and amino
acids in solution, etc. - penetrate into the soil and may undergo further chemical
transformation. Such nutrients maythen become available for absorption by plant roots. Over
a much longertime period however, the remains of dead plants and animals
mayaccumulate, become compacted and eventually be transformed into fossilfuels; coal, oil and
natural gas represent the fossilised remains of deadorganisms and act as a long-term store of
solar energy. During the 20thcentury, humans have spectacularly increased their extraction
andcombustion of such resources. Development of countries is inextricablylinked to their
increasing energy consumption.
Implications of energy flowLoss of energy at each stage of a food chain - through respiration of
thepreceding organism, through faeces and through not all of the precedingorganism being
eaten, has important implications for humans in terms offood production systems. Quite
simply, the longer the food chain, themore energy will be lost. So in terms of energy capture,
it is more efficientfor humans to try to obtain their energy requirements by eating plants thanit
is by eating animals. This is despite the fact that carnivores such as humans have a
greater assimilation efficiency when consuming meat thanwhen consuming vegetable matter
(generally speaking, the closer thesimilarity between the tissues of the consumer and the
tissues of the foodit eats, the higher the assimilation efficiency). Secondly, it is important
toappreciate that our food production systems based upon meat are heavilyenergy-subsidised -
pesticides and fertilisers are made using fossil fuelsand mechanisation requires similarly large
inputs of fossil fuels. Sincethese are finite, i.e. they will run out, it is important that we do not
becomedependent on forms of food production which require a net energy input.

Limitations of ecological models


Food chains, food webs, pyramids of number, biomass and energycan be thought of as
ecological models. Their limitations, summarisedbelow, frequently appear on examination
questions.
Food chains - Organisms do not usually feed on just one type oforganism.
Food web - A series of interconnected food chains. More realistic butdont quantify the relative
contribution of food sources. This is oftentested in food web questions:
carnivorous insects
beetles caterpillars aphids
oak bark oak fruits oak leaves

Q. Suggest how the population of beetles might be affected if the caterpillar population
died out.
A. If caterpillars were a major dietary component of carnivorous insects then the number of
beetles and/or aphids eaten might significantly increase. However, if caterpillars were only a
minor component of the
insects' diet then the number of beetles and/or aphids eaten might not alter very much. We
cannot be sure because the food web does not tell us the relative importance of each part of the
carnivorous insects diet or anything about their feeding preferences.
Pyramids of numbers - Do not take into account the relative size ofproducers and consumers -
one tree can support thousands ofcaterpillars, for example, so the pyramid is often inverted.
Pyramids of biomass - Overcome the problem of body size but donot take into account
productivity. Consequently, they sometimespresent a misleading picture. In exams, the most
common example isan inverted pyramid of biomass for the English Channel.
zooplankton
phytoplankton
Despite appearances, the biomass of zooplankton are not beingsupported in any
sustainable way by a smaller biomass ofphytoplankton - the pyramid does not show the
productivity of thephytoplankton (i.e. the number of new phytoplankton thephytoplankton
are producing).
Pyramids of productivity (or energy) - The most difficult to constructbut always pyramidal! These
show the amount of energy at, or theproductivity of, each trophic level.

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