Introduction to Ecosystem Ecology

Prof. Dr. Yingzhi Gao

Northeast Normal University
Phone:13664319768
Email:gaoyz108@nenu.edu.cn

Textbook:
Principles of Terrestrial Ecosystem Ecology
by F. Stuart Chapin III
Pamela A. Matson
Harold A. Mooney

Course Goals
Understand basic principles
Interaction, scale, process, pools and
fluxes, trophic,
Integration
regulation and
Get you involved
management
Participate!!!

Why should we care about

ecosystem ecology?
Ecosystem ecology provides a
mechanistic basis for understanding the
Earth System
Ecosystems provide goods and services
to society
Human activities are changing
ecosystems (and therefore the Earth
System)

Complex: human activity influence

What is Ecosystem Ecology?

Study of interactions among
organisms and their physical
environment as an integrated
system

What is an ecosystem?
bounded ecological system
consisting of all the organisms in an
area and the physical environment
with which they interact
Biotic and abiotic processes
Pools and fluxes

System defnition

Living
aboveground
phytomass

Standing
dead

System output:

Degistati
on
Animals

System input:
- wet and dry
deposition
- N2-fxation
- fertilization
- water inflow

nutrient cycling

Litter
Exc
reta

Uptake for
shoot production

internal
nutrient cycling
(Du
ng)

Retranslocation

Decompo
sition

Excreta (Urine)

Living
belowground
phytomass

Dead
belowground
phytomass
Decomp
osition

Humifcation

Humus

Immobilization

Washout

Exudation

Mineralization

Uptake
Mineral
nutrients in
soil solution

Mineralization

- water outflow
- wind erosion
- losses to air
(denitrifcation)
- fre (burning dung)
- haymaking
- animal products
(meat, wool,...)

Nitrogen fluxes and pools 2004 and 2005 (g/m)

Living shoot
shoot
Living

TO
1.4 - 2.3

T79
2.2 - 3.1

N-uptake
TO
1.4 - 2.3

T79
2.2 - 3.1

Living roots
roots
Living
TO
4.5

T79
8.3

TO
Sheep uptake 1,0

TO
0.1

TO
0.23 - 0.26

T79
25.4

Export

TO
0.6

Standing dead
dead and
and
Standing
litter
litter

Decomposition
TO
T79
0.05
0.6

T79
2.8 - 2.9

Root N-uptake
TO
5

T79
7

Soil Humus N
(0-20 cm)
Plant
available
N

Dead roots
roots
Dead
TO
16.7

Sheep

TO
0.4

Decomposition
TO
3-5

T79
5-9

TO
330

T79
400

Ecosystem Structure:
Trophic relations
Trophic relationships determine an
ecosystems routes of energy flow and
chemical cycling
Trophic structure refers to the feeding
relations among organisms in an ecosystem
Trophic level refers to how organisms fit in
based on their main source of nutrition,
including

Trophic levels
Primary producers: autotrophs (plants, algae,
many bacteria, phytoplankton),
Primary consumers: heterotrophs that feed on
autotrophs (herbivores, zooplankton);
Secondary consumers heterotrophs that feed on
primary consumers;
Tertiary consumers (quatenary consumers);
Detritivores (organisms that feed on decaying
organic matter, bacteria, fungi, and soil fauna)
Omnivores (feed on everything), frugivore,
fungivore.

Other Definitions
An ecosystem is a bounded ecological
system that includes all the organisms and
abiotic pools with which they interact.
An ecosystems is the sum of all of the
biological and nonbiological parts that
interact to cause plants grow and decay, soil
or sediments to form, and the chemistry of
water to change.

Ecosystem Ecology
The study of the movement of energy and
materials, including water, chemicals,
nutrients, and pollutants, into, out of, and
within ecosystems.
The study of the interactions among
organisms and their environment as an
integrated systems.

Example 1
Small scale: e.g., soil core, appropriate for
studying microbial interactions with the soil
environment, microbial nutrient
transformations, trace gas fluxes,

Example 2
Stand: an area of sufficient homogeneity
with regard to vegetation, soils, topography,
microclimate, and past disturbance history
to be treated as a single unit.
Appropriate for studying whole-ecosystem gas
exchange, net primary productivity, plantsoil-microbial nutrient and carbon fluxes

Example 3
Natural boundaries: sometimes, ecosystems
are bounded by naturally-delineated borders
(lawn, crop field, lake).
Appropriate questions include whole-lake
trophic dynamics and energy fluxes (e.g.
Lindeman)

Example 4
Watershed: a stream and all the terrestrial
surface that drains into it.
Watershed studies use stream as sample
device, recording surface exports of water,
nutrients, carbon, pollutants, etc., from the
watershed.

Temporal Scale
Instantaneous

Temporal Scale
Instantaneous
Seasonal

Temporal Scale
Instantaneous
Seasonal
Succession

Temporal Scale

Instantaneous
Seasonal
Succession
Species migration

Temporal Scale

Instantaneous
Seasonal
Succession
Species migration
Evolutionary history

Temporal Scale

Instantaneous
Seasonal
Succession
Species migration
Evolutionary history
Geologic history

General approaches
Systems approach
Top-down approach

General approaches
Systems approach
Top-down approach

Comparative approach
Bottom-up approach
Based on processes

Historical roots
Community ecology
Elton
Clements

Geography
Warming, Schimper, Walter

Soils
Jenny

Systems Approach

Lindeman: Trophic dynamics

Odum: Energy and nutrient flows
Margalef: Information transfer
ONeill: Hierarchy theory
Holling: Resistance and resilience

Process Approach
Jenny: State factors
Billings, Mooney: Ecophysiology

Tansley, British plant ecoslogist

The use and abuse of vegetational concepts
and terms. Ecology 16: 284-307
First to coin term, ecosystem
Emphasized interactions between biotic and
abiotic factors
Argued against exclusive focus on
organisms

Hans Jenny, Soil scientist

Factors of soil formation, 5 state factors that
constrain soil and ecosystem development
Soil = function of Climate, organisms, parent
material, relief (topography) and time, or
s=f(clorpt)
Many patterns of soil and ecosystem properties
correlate with state factors (climate and vegetation
structure and function)

Ramond Lindeman
Qualified pools and fluxes of energy in a lake
ecosystem emphasizing biotic and abiotic
components and exchange
Fluxes of energy, critical currency in ecosystem
ecology, basis for comparison among ecosystems
Synthesized with mathematical model
Coupling of energy flow with nutrient cycling

J. D. Ovington, English forester

Central question, how much water and nutrients are
needed to produce a given amount of wood?
Constructed ecosystem budgets for nutrients, water,
and biomass
Also included inputs and outputs: exports of logs
involves exports of nutrients (thus inputs of
nutrients required to maintain productivity
One of the first to state the need for more basic
understanding of ecosystem function for managing
natural resources

H. T. Odum and E. P. Odum

Used radioactive tracers to study movement
of energy and materials through a coral reef,
documenting patterns of whole system
metabolism
System analysis- ecosystem as a lifesupport system concept

Earth System and Global Change

Making history in ecosystem ecology
Impact of human activities on Earth has led to the
need to understand how ecosystem processes affect
the atmosphere and oceans
Large spatial scale, requiring new tools in
ecosystem ecology (fluxes tower measurements of
gas exchange over large regions, remote sensing
from satellites,global networks of atmospheric
sampling, global models of ecosystem
metabolism).

Frontiers in ecosystem ecology

Integrating systems analysis, process understanding,
and global analysis
How do changes in the environment alter the
controls over ecosystem processes? What are the
integrated consequences of these changes? How do
these changes in ecosystem properties influence the
Earth system?
Rapid human-induced changes occurring in
ecosystems have blurred any previous distinction
between basic research and management application

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