Ecosystems – Structure and Productivity.

Biogeochemical Cycles and Flow of Energy in the Ecosystems

A community cannot exist isolated from its abiotic environment. The phytocenosis requires and uses
CO2(carbon dioxide), water, minerals and 02(oxygen) from the nonliving nature. The zoocenosis

uses nutrients provided by the phytocenosis yet it needs 02(oxygen) and water too.

The close association of a community and its non-living environment from which it obtains all necessary
substances is called an ecosystem.

The term ecosystem (oikos — home, place) is proposed by the English ecologist Tensley in 1935.

The "nonliving" part of the ecosystem is recognized as biotope. The biotope is an area from the physical
environment, which is homogeneous in an ecological aspect. It affects the community with its abiotic
factors and the latter is forced to adapt to it. The greatest diversity of biotopes is observed on land and
greatest is the diversity of terrestrial ecosystems, respectively. Examples of terrestrial ecosystems are
forest ecosystems -deciduous, coniferous and compound, grassland, desert ecosystems etc. There are
also aquatic ecosystems — bog, river, lake, lagoon, estuary, seaside and open-ocean ecosystems.
Different ecosystems differ in their productivity ().

Production. The production of an

ecosystem is defined as the total mass of organic matter produced by its biotic component (community)
for a unit of time (a day, month or year). Productivity depends on the speed at which a phytocenosis
absorbs and utilizes solar energy in the process of photo-synthesis. Three types of productivity exist.

Gross primary productivity is the rate at which energy is assimilated in the trophic level of producers, i.e.
the total quantity of organic matter, which is produced in the process of photosynthesis.

Net primary productivity is that part of the organic matter, which remains in the phyto-cenosis after
plants have used part of the biomass to meet their energy requirements. It is this energy, which is
potentially available to the trophic level of herbivores.

Net secondary productivity is the rate of biomass formation or energy fixation by heterotrophic
organisms.

There is a close community-biotope relationship — the two components affect each other and are
intrinsically associated. A process, vitally important for the life on Earth, takes place in the ecosystem —
this process is called biogeochemical cycle.

Producers absorb inorganic substances (H20,

002, minerals) from the biotope and transform

them into organic substances. They use solar energy in accomplishing this transformation.
Organic substances are chemical compounds which can only he formed by living organisms and can
never be generated in nonliving environment. Nutrients are kinds of organic sub-stances.

In a community, organic substances and energy are transferred from a trophic level to the next through a
food chain. Every organism uses some of the energy obtained with the

ingestion of the available organic substances to meet its needs for energy. Part of the energy is
transformed into heat and is radiated (lost), while the rest of it is stored in the organic substances
synthesized by the organism. The organism uses those substances in order to build its body and
to grow in mass. In turn, the organism's organic substances are available to the next trophic level
and so on. That is the reason why consumers at each subsequent trophic level get less energy
than the consumers at the preceding one.

Herbivores have at disposal the greatest amount of organic substances and the greatest amount of energy
respectively. That is why they exist in populations characterized by great population number. Predators feeding on
other predators (C3) obtain the least amount of energy and as a result, they exist in populations with small population
number.

Once producers and consumers die, decomposers break down their organic substances to inorganic
ones — CO2, H2O, minerals, and thus bring them back to the biotope. This way they
are available to producers that may use them again. There is a flow of energy along with the
cycling of substances in the ecosystem. The ultimate source of energy in ecosystems is the sun;
its energy is transformed into chemical energy and, on every trophic level, part of it is radiated
back to space as heat (). The cycle of every substance can be regarded as consisting of two parts:
the first one is a reservoir pool — the greater portion of the substance which is accumulated in the
biotope; its exchange with the second part, the actively cycling (exchange) pool, is limited and slow.
The exchange pool is the smaller portion of the substance but it is more active and quickly moves
through the living components of an ecosystem.
The main biogeochemical cycles are the nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus,
sodium and water cycles ().

Nitrogen Cycle (). This cycle is comparatively complex. The reservoir pool of nitrogen is rich — 78% of the
atmospheric gases. Plants cannot use atmospheric nitrogen. They must have their nitrogen readily
available in the form of N-compounds for assimilation and synthesis of amino acids. Decomposers break
proteins and remains of plant and animal

organisms down to nitrate ions and thus bring them back into soil. There are two types of bacteria which
are important for the N-cycle. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria take in atmospheric nitrogen and include it in
their amino acids; on the other hand, denitrifying bacteria break nitrate ions down to N2 and return it to
the atmosphere.

Carbon Cycle (). The reservoir pool of carbon is big and various. Plants take up CO2 available in the
atmosphere or

dissolved in water. They use it in order to form

organic compounds. Consumers throughout
the food chain release part of the CO2 back to

the atmosphere (the air which they exhale is

rich in CO2). When dead bodies decay,

decomposers reduce the rest of the carbon to

CO2 and also take it back to the atmosphere.

When the remains of plants and animals are

buried, there is no 02 and in case of acidic pH

within the environment, they are converted into

peat. Thus, the carbon cycle slows down.
Fields of coal and oil prove that carbon cycle

used to slow down in past geological ages as well.

Phosphorus Cycle (Producers assimilate phosphorus as phosphate ions from soil because these ions are
abundant there. Decomposers convert the phosphorus, which is contained in organic substances into
phosphates, and thus bring them back to soil. Phosphates are soluble in water — thus precipitation will
take them to the World Ocean. Phosphorus can be obtained from the ocean by industrial fishing.

The feces of birds feeding on fish (guano) are rich in phosphates and nitrate ions and make an excellent
natural fertilizer.

Sulfur Cycle. The reservoir pool of sulfur is contained in soil in two forms, which are insoluble in water —
pyrites and double (peptide) sulfide of copper and iron (CuFeS2). Plants can assimilate

only water-soluble sulfates from soil. Decomposers reduce the organic substances which contain sulfur
and as a result water-soluble sulfates are available to plants for assimilation. Water-soluble sulfates are
formed from sulfur oxides. Various microorgan¬isms participate in this process.

Water Cycle (). Water is the most abundant component of living organisms. It evapo-rates from water
basins and causes the humidity of air, which condenses into clouds that can be moved by air currents.
Under specific conditions, water reaches the earth's surface as precipitation (rain, snow etc.). Then it
gets back to the water basins through the surface of the soil. Vegetation is very important to the water
cycle because plants take in some of the water, rendered available by precipitation and evaporate it back
to the atmosphere. Plant roots can drain water from a great depth. Some of the water reaches to the
leaves of trees and is evaporat¬ed to the atmosphere through transpiration.

Thanks to the composition and structure of sub-stances and their biochemical cycles in it, the ecosystem
tends to be a stable and autonomous natural system.

SUMMARY!
The ecosystem is composed of a community are intrinsically associated. An ecosystem is and a biotope.
There is a close community- characterized by its productivity and biogeo-biotope relationship — they
affect each other and chemical cycles. Energy flows in the ecosystem.