N21 By: John Philip Ng

Living and non-living things generally move about in the same environment. Their interactions and the way they affect one another is an essential thing to study.

http://www.brighthub.com/environment/sc ienceenvironmental/articles/85429.aspx

An ecosystem is a community of living organisms (plants, animals and microbes) in conjunction with the nonliving components of their environment (things like air, water and mineral soil), interacting as a system.

Energy and carbon enter ecosystems through photosynthesis, are incorporated into living tissue, Transferred to other organisms that feed on the living and dead plant matter,

and eventually released through respiration. Ecosystems are controlled both by external and internal factors. External factors, also called state factors, control the overall structure of an ecosystem and the way things work within it, but are not themselves influenced by the ecosystem.

Material Topography Biota Time Climate

The parent material within the ecosystem plays a significant role in maintaining the ecosystem in times of disturbances. It refers to the quality of the soil, The sediments within the soil as well as the mineral concentration.

While parent material refers to the soil concentration and quality, Topography refers to the study and changes of the earth's surface, whether natural or fabricated. This factor will have a direct affect on the local climate and soil concentration.

Biota refers to all the organisms and flora that inhabit a particular ecosystem. Biota directly affects the species within the ecosystem process.

Depending on the type of organism and plant material present, The ecosystem can be strong and stable or weak and easily destructible.

Time is another state factor that will affect the ecosystem process, Although the effect is not as apparent. The time effects on the ecosystem are slow to process and can take decades or even centuries before a change is seen.

The global climate has board physical and biological effects on the local climate and landscape during the ecosystem process. Weather and climate have a direct effect on the severity and prevalence of plant diseases and infections.

The moisture rate and conditions determine the prevalence of plant infecting fungi, viruses and bacteria.

Primary production is the production of organic matter from inorganic carbon sources. Overwhelmingly, this occurs through photosynthesis.

The energy incorporated through this process supports life on earth, while the carbon makes up much of the organic matter in living and dead biomass, soil carbon and fossil fuels.

Are of inanimate, not biological, origin. Inorganic compounds lack carbon and hydrogen atoms and are synthesized by the agency of geological systems. In contrast, the synthesis of organic compounds in biological systems incorporates carbohydrates into the molecular structure.

Greek Work Photo means Light and synthesis means Putting together Is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert the light energy captured from the sun into chemical energy that can be used to fuel the organism's activities.

Also called the calorific flow, Refers to the flow of energy through a food chain. In an ecosystem, ecologists seek to quantify the relative importance of different component species and feeding relationships.

Energy flow diagram of a frog. The frog represents a node in an extended food web. The energy ingested is utilized for metabolic processes and transformed into biomass.

The energy flow continues on its path if the frog is ingested by predators, parasites, or as a decaying carcass in soil. This energy flow diagram illustrates how energy is lost as it fuels the metabolic process that transform the energy and nutrients into biomass.

Abbreviations: I= Input, A= Assimilation, R= Respiration, NU= Not Utilized, P= Production, B= Biomass.

An expanded three link energy food chain (1. plants, 2. herbivores, 3. carnivores) illustrating the relationship between food flow diagrams and energy transformity.

The transformity of energy becomes degraded, dispersed, and diminished from higher quality to lesser quantity as the energy within a food chain flows from one trophic species into another.

Depicts feeding connections (what eats what) in an ecological community and hence is also Referred to as a consumerresource system.

Ecologists can broadly lump all life forms into one of two categories called trophic levels: 1. The Autotrophs 2. The Heterotrophs

Greek Auto means self and trophe nourishing or producer. Is an organism that produces complex organic compounds (such as carbohydrates, fats, and proteins)

from simple substances present in its surroundings, generally using energy from light (photosynthesis) or inorganic chemical reactions (chemosynthesis).

is the biological conversion of one or more carbon molecules (usually carbon dioxide or methane) and nutrients into organic matter using the oxidation of inorganic molecules (e.g. hydrogen gas, hydrogen sulfide) or methane as a source of energy, rather than sunlight, as in photosynthesis.

heteros means another and trophe nutrition. Is an organism that cannot fix carbon and uses organic carbon for growth.

is the process by which organic substances are broken down into simpler forms of matter. The process is essential for recycling the finite matter that occupies physical space in the biome.

Is the movement and exchange of organic and inorganic matter back into the production of living matter. The process is regulated by food web pathways that decompose matter into mineral nutrients.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecosystem http://www.ehow.com/info_8693067_fivestate-factors-ecosystem-process.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inorganic_compou nd http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photosynthesis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_flow_(ecol ogy) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_web

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemosynthesis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decomposition http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nutrient_cycle