Chapter 7: Energy and ecosystems

Summary:
Energy flows through ecosystems. All energy enters an ecosystem as sunlight, and it is converted to chemical energy in organic molecules during photosynthesis in producers. Energy is transferred along food chains as one organism feeds on another. Energy is lost at each transfer within and between organisms, mostly as heat produced during respiration. This results in a decrease in biomass and energy in successive trophic levels. Matter recycles around ecosystems. Nitrogen from the air is fixed by bacteria, some of which live freely in the soil and some, especially Rhizobium, which live in root nodules of leguminous plants. Fixed nitrogen, in the form of nitrates, is taken up by plants and used to synthesise amino acids and proteins, on which animals feed. Decomposers convert dead organisms and their waste products to ammonia, which is then converted to nitrite and nitrate by nitrifying bacteria. Denitrifying bacteria complete the cycle, converting inorganic nitrogen compounds to nitrogen gas.

Ecology is a branch of biology that studies how whole communities of living organisms interact with each other and with their environment.

GLOSSARY
Habitat: the particular location and type of local environment occupied by a population or organism, characterised by its physical features or by its dominant producers (such as rocky shore). Population: all of the organisms of one particular species within a specified area at a particular time, sharing the same gene pool and more or less isolated from other populations of the same species. Community: all of the populations of all of the different species within a specified area at a particular time. Ecosystem: a unit made up of biotic and abiotic components interacting and functioning together, including all the living organisms of all the types in a given area and all the abiotic physical and chemical factors in their environment, linked together by energy flow and cycling of nutrients (e.g. a pond).

Energy flows into the ecosystem from outside it (as sunlight), flows through the organisms in the ecosystem (as food) and eventually leaves the ecosystem (as heat). Matter cycles around an ecosystem, where some atoms are reused over and over again by different organisms.

Niche: the functional role or place of a species of organism within an ecosystem, including interactions with other organisms (such as feeding), habitat, life-cycle and location. Producers: autotrophic organisms, at the first level in food chains, which can use simple inorganic compounds (carbon dioxide or nitrogen) plus energy from light (photosynthesis) or oxidation of inorganic chemicals (chemosynthesis) to manufacture energy-rich organic compounds. Consumers: heterotrophic organisms that get energy-rich organic compounds by eating or decomposing other organisms. They exist at the second (e.g. herbivore) or higher (e.g. carnivore) trophic levels in a food chain. Trophic level: a position in a food chain, indicating the numbers of energy-transfer steps to that level.

Producers are at trophic level 1, herbivores at 2, and so on, up to trophic level 5 for some large predators (polar bear and orca). Heterotroph: an organism that cannot synthesize its own food and is dependent on complex organic substances for nutrition. Autotroph: an organism capable of synthesizing its own food from inorganic substances, using light or chemical energy.

Energy flow through organisms and ecosystems

If metabolic reactions inside a living organism stops, then all of the cell's activities stop and it dies. Inside every cells, the immediate source of energy is ATP (adenosine triphosphate). Each cell makes its own ATP as and when it needs it. When energy is required ATP is broken down by hydrolysis and its energy used for whatever the cell needs. The source of energy for making ATP is other organic molecules such as carbohydrates, lipids and proteins whose molecules' energy is released when they are broken down by a process of respiration. This energy is stored in mesophyll cells of plant leaves. Here, sunlight is captured by chlorophyll in the chloroplasts and used to supply energy to drive the reactions of photosynthesis.

Carbon dioxide from the air and water drawn up from the soil react together to produce carbohydrates and energy is transferred from sunlight and converted into chemical energy in the carbohydrate molecules. The plant uses these molecules to make lipids and proteins which also have some of this energy.
Animals eat plants, obtaining some of this chemical energy in the molecules they take in. Plants and animals then break down these organic molecules in the process of respiration, transferring energy to ATP molecules which is then itself broken down to release its energy for use in metabolic reactions. Green plants and other photosynthetic organisms have the essential role of providing the entire input of energy to an ecosystem. They are producers. Chemicals which the synthesise serve as supplies of chemical energy to all other organisms in an ecosystem. Al animals

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Chemicals which the synthesise serve as supplies of chemical energy to all other organisms in an ecosystem. Al animals and fungi, and many of the microorganisms, consume the organic chemicals made by plants. They are consumers.

Food chains and food webs

The way in which energy flows from producer to consumers can be shown by drawing a food chain. Arrows indicate the direction in which the energy flows. Different positions in a food chain are called trophic levels. The interrelationships between many food chains can be drawn as a food web.

Animals which regularly feed as both primary and higher-level consumers, such as humans, are known as omnivores.

Most decomposers live in the soil and their role in an ecosystem is to feed on detritus (dead organisms and waste material, such as dead leaves, faeces and urine). Energy from every organism in the ecosystem flows into the decomposers. Detritivores are large animals which are decomposers.

Energy losses along food chains

Whenever energy is transferred from one form, or from one system, to another some is always lost as heat. Of the sunlight falling onto the ecosystem, only a very small percentage is converted by the green plants into chemical energy. The reasons for this inefficiency include: Some sunlight missing leaves entirely and falling onto nonphotosynthesising surfaces. Some sunlight being reflected from the surface of the leaves. Some sunlight passing through leaves without being trapped by chlorophyll molecules. Only certain wavelengths of light being absorbed by chlorophyll. Energy losses as energy absorbed by chlorophyll is transferred to carbohydrates during photosynthesis. Almost half of the chemical potential energy stored by plants is used by the plants themselves (respiration, active transport etc.). During these processes, much energy is lost to the environment as heat. Energy losses occur between plants and the primary consumers. Reasons include: Not all of the parts of the plants being available to be eaten. Not all of the parts of the plants eaten being digestible, so that not all of the molecules can be absorbed and used by the primary consumer. Energy losses as heat within the consumer's digestive system, as food is digested.

The overall efficiency of transfer of energy from producer to primary consumer is rarely greater than 10%.

Food chains rarely have more than 4 or 5 links in them because there simply would not be sufficient energy left to support animals so far removed from the original energy input to the producers.

Productivity
The rate at which plants convert light energy into chemical potential energy is called productivity, or primary productivity (usually measured in kJ of energy transferred per m2 per year). Gross primary productivity is the total energy or nutrients assimilated by an organism, a population, or an entire community. Net primary productivity is the energy which remains as chemical energy after the plants have supplied their own need in respiration.

Matter recycling in ecosystems

The elements from which matter needed to build bodies of living organisms are mostly hydrogen, carbon and oxygen, which are contained in all the organic molecules within organisms. Other elements need in smaller amount are nitrogen, sulphur, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, iodine and iron. Atoms of these elements are used over and over again within an ecosystem, or passed into other ecosystems.

Nitrogen cycle
Nitrogen is an essential element for all living organisms because of its presence in proteins and nucleic acids. Before nitrogen can be used by living organisms it must be converted form molecular nitrogen into some more reactive forms, such as ammonia or nitrate. This conversion is called nitrogen fixation. Nitrogen fixation -can take place naturally or synthetically.

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Nitrogen fixation -can take place naturally or synthetically. By living organisms Only prokaryotes are capable of fixing nitrogen. Best-known nitrogen-fixing bacteria, Rhizobium, lives freely in the soil, and also in the roots of many species of plants, especially leguminous plants (peas, beans, clover). The plant and the bacterium coexist in a rather remarkable way, each benefiting from the presence of the other. This is an example of mutualism, in which two organisms of different species live very closely together, each meeting some of the other's needs. When a leguminous plant germinates, its roots produce proteins called lectins which bind to polysaccharides on the cell surface of the bacteria . The bacteria invade the roots, spreading along the root hairs whose cells they stimulate to divide and develop into small lumps or nodules , inside which the bacteria form colonies. The bacteria fix nitrogen with the help of an enzyme called nitrogenase which catalyses the conversion of nitrogen gas to ammonium ions. To do this, it needs: a supply of hydrogen (from reduced NADP); a supply of ATP (from the metabolism of sucrose); anaerobic conditions (maintained by a protein leghaemoglobin with high affinity for oxygen). Fixation in the atmosphere When lightning passes through the atmosphere, the huge quantities of energy involved can cause nitrogen molecules to react with oxygen, forming nitrogen oxides. These dissolve in rain, and are carried to the ground. Fixation by the Haber process Nitrogen and hydrogen gases are reacted together to produce ammonia. The ammonia is often converted to ammonium nitrate, which is the most widely used inorganic fertiliser in the world. Use of fixed nitrogen by plants In legumes, the fixed nitrogen in their root nodules is used to make amino acids. These are transported out of the nodules into xylem , distributed to all parts of the plant and used within cells to synthesise proteins. Other plants rely on supplies of fixed nitrogen from the soil. Their root hairs take up nitrate ions by active transport. In many plants, the nitrate is converted in the roots, first to nitrite, then ammonia, and then amino acids which are transported to other parts of the plant in xylem. In other plants species, nitrate ions are transported, in xylem, to the leaves before undergoing these processes. Most of the nitrogen ends up as part of protein molecules in the plant. Assimilation of nitrogen by animals Animals and humans can only use nitrogen when it is part of an organic molecule. During digestion, proteins are broken down to amino acids, before being absorbed into the blood and distributed to all cells in the body. Here they are built up again into proteins. Excess amino acids are deaminated in the liver, where nitrogen becomes part of urea molecules. These are excreted in urine. Return of nitrate to the soil from living organisms When an animal or plant dies, the proteins in its cells are gradually broken down to amino acids. This is done by decomposers (bacteria and fungi), which produce protease enzymes. The decomposers use some of the amino acids for their won growth, while some are broken down and the nitrogen released as ammonia. Ammonia is also produced from the urea in animal urine. The production of ammonia is called ammonification. Ammonia in the soil is rapidly converted to nitrite ions and then nitrate ions by nitrifying bacteria (Nitrosomonas and Nitrobacter). They derive their energy from nitrification. This only occurs freely in well-aerated soils.
Denitrification Denitrifying bacteria provide themselves with energy by reversing nitrogen fixation and converting nitrate to nitrogen gas, which is returned to the air. This brings the nitrogen cycle full circle.

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