ENVISAFE

DEPARTMENT OF INDUSTRIAL ENGINEERING

 ECOSYSTEMS
(Ecological Systems)
 ECOLOGY : the scientific study of relationships
between organisms and their environment

SYSTEMS Approach of Ecology: holistic view

about the interconnections that make the whole
system more than just the sum of the individual
parts
Definition of Terms

Biological Community consists of

all the populations living and
interacting in an area
Population consists of all
members of a specie that live in
the same area at the same time
Specie (kind) all organisms that
are genetically similar enough to
breed and produce live, fertile
offspring in nature
 Niche way of life of an organism and its
relationship with its environment
Habitat place where the organism actually
lives e.g., lion in a savannah, cactus in the
desert, monkey in a rainforest
 Biome is a large area with similar flora, fauna,
and microorganisms.
Examples: Tropical rainforests, tundra in the
arctic regions, taiga
 Major Biomes:
Mountains
Tundra
Temperate Forest
Marine/Island
Desert
Tropical Dry Forest
Cold Climate Forest
Grassland
Savannah
Tropical Rain Forest
 Ecosystem a specific biological
community and its physical
environment interacting in an
exchange of matter and energy
Note: An ecosystem is much smaller
than a biome. Conversely, a biome can
be thought of many similar ecosystems
throughout the world grouped together.
An ecosystem can be as large as the
Sahara Desert, or as small as a puddle or
vernal pool.
Ecosystems will fail if they do not remain
in balance.
 An ecosystem is a dynamic complex of plant,
animal and micro-organism communities and
their non-living environment interacting as a
functional unit.

- The Convention on
Biological Diversity (CBD)
Ecosystem Structure

Abiotic
Atmosphere air
Hydrosphere water
Lithosphere - soil
Biotic
Biosphere contains all living things on earth
 An ecosystem is composed of:
Biotic factors livings parts (animals, plants,
microorganisms)
Abiotic factors nonliving parts (temperature,
sunlight, humidity, water supply, soil types,
mineral nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus,
sulfur)
 In ecosystems, everything is connected
Humans have affected ecosystems by
disrupting the food chain, the carbon cycle, the
nitrogen cycle, the water cycle, etc. causing
imbalance
Types of Ecosystems

Marine Ecosystems
Coastal Ecosystems
Lowland Ecosystems*
Upland Ecosystems*
Forest Ecosystems*
* Terrestrial biomes
WATER ECOSYSTEMS
 Marine ecosystems - biological communities in oceans and
seas
Oceans : 75% of earths surface
Photosynthetic plants (phytoplankton) support marine food web
Ocean systems may be classified into:

Benthic communities bottom

Pelagic communities zones at the
water column; may be epilagic (top),
mesopelagic (medium) and
bathypelagic (deep zone)
Marine Ecosystems
Estuaries an ecosystem in which fresh
water from rivers mixes with salt water
from the ocean (habitat of horseshoe crabs)
Threats to estuaries: dumping of wastes like
sewage, industrial waste containing toxic
chemicals
Coral Reefs limestone islands that are
built by coral animals with the help of
photosynthetic algae; these are found in
shallow tropical seas and support a great
diversity of species
Threats: oil spills, sewage, pesticide, silt runoff
 Coastal ecosystems - boundary systems
between water and land
Wetlands in coastal areas can be classified into
three basic types: mangroves, salt marshes,
and freshwater tidal marshes.
Swamps are wetlands with trees
Marshes are wetlands without trees
Freshwater Ecosystems

Lakes
Wetlands
Streams
Rivers
 Lowland and Upland Ecosystems are classified
according to their relative distance from water
sources
 Forest Ecosystems
Tropical Rain Forests near the equator
Temperate Rain Forests North and South
America, Australia and New Zealand
Temperate Deciduous Forests North America
Taiga northern coniferous forest; terrain is rough
and forest floor is sparsely vegetated
 Note : Differences in vegetation determined by
the climate
Climate the weather condition in an area
which includes temperature, precipitation,
humidity, and winds, over a long period of time
 Polar Ecosystems in the North and South Poles
can be considered marine ecosystems because
all food is provided by
phytoplanktons
Arctic Ocean : seals, polar bears, birds
Antarctic Ocean: whales, penguins
 Threats to polar ecosystems:
Increase in tourism and the garbage that is
left behind
Interaction of Species

Major types
Predation one organism eats and kills
another (predator/prey: snakes/mice,
birds/insects)
Competition where species attempt to
use the same limited resource (hyenas
and lions)
Parasitism organisms that live in or on
another organism and feed on it without
immediately killing it (ticks and dog)
Mutualism cooperative partnership
between two species (acacia trees and
ants)
Commensalism where one species
benefits and the other is neither harmed
or helped (remora and sharks)
Adaptation to the
Environment
Darwins Theory of Natural Selection
(the unequal survival and
reproduction that results from the
presence or absence of particular
traits) is responsible for evolution
Co-evolution when two or more
species evolve in response to each
other (ecologically intimate or
influence each others evolution)
Extinction the irreversible
disappearance of a population or a
specie
 Biodiversity the variety of living things
Loss of Biodiversity when there is an
imbalance in ecosystems such that some
species become extinct
Threats to Biodiversity

Over harvest
Habitat destruction
Species introduction
Chemical pollution
Global atmospheric change
 Ecosystems have become particularly
important politically
The Convention on Biological Diversity
(CBD) - ratified by more than 175
countries - defines "the protection of
ecosystems, natural habitats and the
maintenance of viable populations of
species in natural surroundings
This has created the political necessity
to spatially identify ecosystems and
somehow distinguish among them.
Energy Flow in
Ecosystems
Almost all organisms get energy from the sun:
producers get energy directly from the sun
while consumers, indirectly
In deep ocean ecosystems, photosynthesis
cannot occur because of the absence of
sunlight; instead, bacteria make food for the
other organisms (without sunlight) from other
materials present
 Energy transfers occur through an
ecosystem via the food chain,
foodweb and trophic levels
Food chain a sequence in which
energy is transferred from one
organism to the next, as each
organism eats another
Food web shows the feeding
relationship in an ecosystem
Trophic level refers to each step of
energy transfer through an ecosystem
 Organisms in a foodweb can be identified as
primary producers or consumers
Organisms can be classified also as herbivores,
carnivores, omnivores, scavengers, detritivores,
or decomposers
 Autotrophs oragnisms that obtain their carbon
from inorganic compounds (includes
photosynthetic organisms like green plants
including algae and some bacteria that use light
as energy source and nitrifying bacteria that
use ammonia as their energy source
 Heterotrophs organisms that depend on
organic matter produced by others to obtain
their carbon (and energy)

Herbivores (Primary Consumers) organisms

that eat plants, extracting energy and chemical
building blocks to make more complex
substances
 Carnivores (Secondary consumers) those that
consume herbivores

Omnivores consumers that eat both plant and

animal material
 Effects of Energy Loss on an ecosystem:
decrease amount of energy at each trophic
level
Results in fewer organisms at the higher trophic
levels
Places a limit on the number of trophic levels in
an ecosystem
Note: Ecosystems seldom have four or five trophic
levels
 Ecological Footprint the biologically productive
area required to provide an individuals
resource supplies and absorb the wastes their
activities produce.
It is generally assumed that if the worlds
resources were allocated fairly, there would
currently be 2.1 hectares of productive land
allocated per person (benchmark)
Country Ecological Biological Difference
Footprint Capacity

US 9.4 5 -4.4

Japan 4.9 0.6 -4.3

SUMMARY
Reading Assignment

Biogeochemical cycles:
Water Cycle
Carbon /Oxygen Cycle
Nitrogen Cycle
Sulfur Cycle
Phosphorous Cycle