ENERGY FLOW THROUGH AN ECOSYSTEM

The initial entry of energy into most ecosystems takes place during photosynthesis. Some
of the energy in the sunlight hitting a plant’s leaves is used to make carbohydrates,
proteins and fats whose molecules contain a proportion of this energy. The carbohydrates
and other organic substances that they synthesize serve as supplies of chemical energy to
all of the other organisms in the ecosystem.

Whenever energy is transferred from one form to another, some is always lost as heat. As
energy passes along a food chain, large losses from the food chain occur at each transfer
both within and between the organisms.

In most ecosystems the plants convert less than 3% of the sunlight to chemical energy.
Reasons for this inefficiency:

1. Some sunlight missing leaves entirely, and falling onto the ground or other non-
photosynthesizing surfaces
2. Some sunlight being reflected from the surfaces of leaves
3. Some sunlight passing through leaves, without encountering chlorophyll
molecules
4. Only certain wavelengths of light being absorbed by chlorophyll
5. Energy losses as energy absorbed by chlorophyll is transferred to carbohydrates
during the reactions of photosynthesis

The chemical potential energy of plants is contained within organic molecules namely
carbs, proteins and lipids. Almost half of the chemical potential energy that they store is
used by plants themselves. They break down the organic molecules by respiration,
releasing some of the energy from them and using it to make ATP. During this process
and also when the energy in ATP is used for activities in the plant cells, much energy is
lost to the environment as heat. The remainder is then available for other organisms
which feed on the plants.

Energy losses also occur between plants and primary consumers. The reasons for these
losses include:

1. Not all the plant material that is eaten- for example, woody tissues or roots, may
be left
2. Not all the plant material that is eaten is fully digested, so that not all of the
molecules are absorbed by the consumer (the rest is lost as faeces, and therefore
becomes available to decomposers)
 3. Energy being lost as heat within the consumer’s digestive system as the food
molecules are hydrolyzed.

Similar losses occur at each trophic level. Therefore as energy is passed along a food
chain, less and less is available at each successive trophic level. For this reason food
chains rarely have more than four/ five links in them because there simply would not be
enough energy left to support animals so far from producers.

If you can pick out a five organism food chain from a food web, the “top” carnivore may
also feed at a lower level in a different food chain or it is extremely scarce.

As a result of the loss of energy during respiration in plants and the other reasons stated
above, the overall efficiency of transfer of energy from producers to primary consumers
is rarely greater than 10%.

PYRAMID OF ENERGY

It shows either the energy transfer from one trophic level to another or the productivity at
each trophic level.

Productivity

It is the rate at which plants convert light energy into chemical potential energy. It is also
called primary productivity. It is measured in units kilojoules of energy transferred per
square meter per year.

Gross primary productivity (GPP)-total quantity of energy transferred by plants from

sunlight into plant tissues

Net primary productivity (NPP) - it is the energy that is left as chemical energy after the
plants have supplied their own needs by respiration

The energy flow from producers to primary consumers is less than the productivity of the
producers and shows how much is consumed. This energy flow is determined by finding
out what consumers feed on and estimating the quantity and the energy content of what
they consume. The energy content of organisms/ parts of organisms eg. leaves, is found
by burning the material in oxygen in a calorimeter.

Advantages of pyramid of energy:

1. The size and edibility of the organism or parts of organisms do not have an effect
on the size of the blocks.
 2. They show that the energy transferred from one trophic level to the next decreases
with position in the food chain.

Limitations of pyramid of energy:

1. The work involved can be time consuming and involves much estimating, since
not all of the organisms in a sample can be burnt
2. As with pyramids of numbers and biomass, they suggest that consumers feed only
on the trophic level below them. Many top predators often feed at several different
trophic levels.