Presented by Group 5

Jigar Desai (13)

Parthik Gosar (17)
Parth Joshi (23)
Jeba Arulraj (37)

Purav Nanavati (38)

Ankita Rathi (42)
Komal Shah (52)
Saloni Zanzari (62)

Some basic definitions..

Ecologyis thescientificstudy of the
relationships that livingorganismshave with
each other and with their abiotic environment.
Ecosystems are composed of dynamically
interacting parts including organisms, the
communitiesthey make up, and the non-living
components of their environment.
Ecosystem processes, such as primary production,
pedogenesis, nutrient cycling, and various
niche construction activities, regulate the flux of energy
and matter through an environment. These processes are
sustained by the biodiversity within them.

Levels of organization of
matter
Subatomic
particles

Organs
Tissue
s

Ecosyste
m
Organ
System

Atoms
Cells

Communities

Organis
m
Molecules

Protoplasm

Populatio
ns

What are the components of an ecosystem?

1. Abiotic components
are such physical and chemical factors of an
ecosystem as light, temperature, atmosphere
gases(nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide are the most
important), water, wind, soil. These specific abiotic
factors represent the geological, geographical,
hydrological and climatological features of a
particular ecosystem.

What are the

components of an
ecosystem?
Water, which is at the
same time an essential
element to life and a
milieu

Temperature, which
should not exceed
certain extremes, even
if tolerance to heat is
significant for some
species

Air, which provides oxygen,

nitrogen, and carbon
dioxide to living species
and allows the
dissemination of pollen and
spores

Light, which provides

energy to the ecosystem
through photosynthesis

Soil, at the same time

source of nutriment and
physical support. The
salinity, nitrogen and
phosphorus content,
ability to retain water,
and density are all
influential.

Natural disasters can

also be considered
abiotic. According to the
intermediate disturbance
hypothesis, a moderate
amount of disturbance
does good to increase the
biodiversity

What are the components

of an ecosystem?
2. Biotic Components
The living organisms are the biotic
components of an ecosystem. In
ecosystems, living things are classified
after the way they get their food.
Biotic Components include the following --

What are the

components of an
ecosystem?
Photoautotrophs are photosynthesizers such as algae and

green plants that produce most of the organic nutrients for the
biosphere.
Autotrophs produce their own organic nutrients for themselves
and other members of the community; therefore, they are called
the producers. There are basically two kinds of autotrophs,
"chemoautotrophs and photoautogrophs.
Chemoautotrophs are bacteria that obtain energy by oxidizing
inorganic compounds such as ammonia, nitrites, and sulfides ,
and they use this energy to synthesize carbohydrates.
.
Heterotrophs, as consumers that are unable to produce, are
constantly looking for source of organic nutrients from
elsewhere.

What are the

components of an
ecosystem?
Detritivores - organisms that rely on detritus, the
decomposing particles of organic matter, for food.
Earthworms and some beetles, termites, and maggots
are all terrestrial detritivores.

Nonphotosynthetic bacteria and fungi, including

mushrooms, are decomposers that carry out
decomposition, the breakdown of dead organic matter,
including animal waste. Decomposers perform a very
valuable service by releasing inorganic substances
that are taken up by plants once more

What is Food Chain?

Flow of energy in an
ecosystem is one way process.
The sequence of organism
through which the energy
flows, is known as food chain.

Tropic levels in a food chain

Producers
Consumers
(i) Primary consumers
(ii) Secondary consumers
(iii) Tertiary consumers
(iv) Quaternary consumers
Decomposers

Types of Food Chain

(i) Grazing Food Chain
The consumers utilizing plants
as their food , constitute
grazing food chain.
This food chain begins from
green plants and the
primary consumer is herbivore.
Most of the ecosystem in
nature follows this type of
food chain.
Ex: grass => grasshopper =>
frogs => snakes=>falcon

Types of Food Chain

(ii) Detritus food
This
type of food chain starts from dead organic matter of
chain

decaying animals and plant bodies to the micro-organisms

and then to detritus feeding organism and to
otherpredators.
The food chain depends mainly on the influx of organic
matter produced in another system.
The organism of the food chain includes algae,
bacteria,fungi, protozoa, insects, nematodes etc.

Significance of Food Chain

The knowledge of food chain helps in
understanding
the feeding relationship as well as the
interaction
between organism and ecosystem.
It also help in understanding the
mechanism of energy
flow and circulation of matter in
ecosystem.
It also helps to understand the movement

FOOD WEBS

What is food web?

Food web can be defined as, "a network of
food chains which are interconnected at
various tropic levels, so as to form a
number of feeding connections amongst
different
organisms
of a biotic
community".It is also known as consumerresource system.

Important facts
A node represents an individual species, or a group of
related
species or different stages of a single species.
A link connects two nodes. Arrows represent links, and
always go from prey to predator.
The lowest tropic level are called basal species.
The highest tropic level are called top predators.
Movement of nutrients is cyclic but of energy is
unidirectional and non-cyclic.

TOPOLOGICAL
WEBS

These food webs simply indicate a

feeding relationship.

FLOW WEBS

Bio-energetic webs, or flow webs,

include information on the strength
of the feeding interaction.

INTERACTION
WEB

In interaction the arrows show how

one group influences another.

Types of food web representation

Different food webs

Soil food web
Aquatic food web
Food web in forest
Food web of grassland
Food web in terrestrial and aquatic
ecosystem

Aquatic food
web

ood web in
orest

Grassland
Food Web

Food web in terrestrial and aquatic

ecosystem

Significance of Food Web

Food webs distinguish levels of producers and
consumers by
identifying and defining the importance of animal
relationships
and food sources, beginning with primary
producers such as
plants, insects and herbivores.
Food webs are important tools in understanding
that plants are
the foundation of all ecosystems and food chains,
sustaining life
by providing nourishment and oxygen needed for
survival and

What causes ecosystem to

change?? (Natural causes)
Cyclones &Hurricane

Volcano eruptions

Floods and famines

Natural forest fires

What causes ecosystem to

change?? (man-made causes)
Oil spills
Pollution
Artificial fires

Examples of ecosystem change

The extirpation of wolves in Yellowstone National Park led to over-browsing of
aspen and willows by elk, and restoration of wolves has allowed the vegetation to
recover.
The reduction of lions and leopards in parts of Africa has led to population
outbreaks and changes in behavior of olive baboons, increasing their contact with
people and causing higher rates of intestinal parasites in both people and
baboons.
A rinderpest epidemic decimated the populations of wildebeest and other
ungulates in the Serengeti, resulting in more woody vegetation and increased
extent and frequency of wildfires prior to rinderpest eradication in the 1960s.
Dramatic changes in coastal ecosystems have followed the collapse and
recovery of sea otter populations; sea otters maintain coastal kelp forests by
controlling populations of kelp-grazing sea urchins.
The decimation of sharks in an estuarine ecosystem caused an outbreak of cownosed rays and the collapse of shellfish populations.

Natural Disasters and Environmental

Change

Natural Disasters and

Environmental Change
Ecosystems are constantly
changing. The plants and
animals living in an ecosystem
change the ecosystem just by
going about their daily lives.
Over time, even bigger changes
can happen.

Ecological Succession
The gradual process of change in
an ecosystem is called
ecological succession.
There are two types of
ecological succession.

Secondary succession also

happens in ecosystems that
have been disrupted by
humans or by natural
disasters. Land
development can cause
secondary succession. So
can natural disasters such
as earthquakes, volcanoes,
and fires.

Secondary succession is
another type of ecological
succession. Secondary
succession occurs where
an ecosystem has
previously existed. For
example, secondary
succession occurs when a
lake ecosystem gradually
fills in and grows into a
forest.

Primary succession is
succession that happens
where an ecosystem was not
present before. Another
example is an ecosystem that
develops in a very rocky area
or on a sand dune.

Natural Disasters and

Environmental Change

Natural Disasters and

Ecosystems
One example of a
natural disaster and how
it changed the
surrounding
environment is the
eruption of Mt. St.
Helen's in Washington.
http://
youtu.be/Y8vOaQUSGZ
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http
://youtu.be/4RsMyVavT
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Fires and Ecological

Succession
There are some types of ecosystems that stay healthy because
of fires. In some parts of the country, wild fires are allowed to
burn because they allow room for certain types of plants and
trees to grow.
In fact, there are some types of trees that will not release their
seeds unless they are exposed to very high temperatures.
In fact, there are some types of trees that will not release their
seeds unless they are exposed to very high temperatures.
A fire allows some trees to be cleared in order for others to grow.
This in turn provides food for organisms that need it.

Ecosystem stability

Resistance and resilience: the relationship

between stability and sustainability

Ecosystem stability is an important corollary of sustainability. Over

time, the structure and function of a healthy ecosystem should
remain relatively stable, even in the face of disturbance. If a stress
or disturbance does alter the ecosystem is should be able to
bounce back quickly

Resistance - the ability of the ecosystem to continue to

function without change when stressed by disturbance
Resilience - the ability of the ecosystem to recover after
disturbance.

Factors affecting
stability:
Disturbance frequency and intensity (how often and
what kind of tillage)
Species diversity (intercropping or rotations),
interactions (competition for water and nutrients from
weed species), and life history strategies (do the
species grow fast and produce many seeds or slow
with few seeds)
Tropic complexity (how many functions are
represented), redundancy (how
many populations perform each function), food web
structure (how do all of these groups interact)
Rate of nutrient or energy flux (how fast are nutrients
and energy moving in and out of the system or
input:output efficiency)

Conclusion
The ecosystem change can either recover from a disturbance or not. Its easier
to recover from a natural disturbances than man made disturbances

A concept related to ecosystem stability is the Intermediate Disturbance

Hypothesis, which states that the highest levels of diversity are supported at
intermediate levels of disturbance (frequency or intensity)

Ecosystems experiencing intermediate levels of disturbance, will have the

highest diversity, the greatest redundancy, and, therefore, the greatest stability

In other words, stability can apply to the number of species in an area or the
number of functions performed.