Energy in the Biosphere

Ecosystems

1
Energy in Ecosystems
● An ecosystem is a unit of nature, generally from one hectare to some
thousands of square kilometers, with boundaries defined by the
investigator, that includes plants, animals, microbes, and the abiotic
environment.
● Energy flows through ecosystems obeying the laws of nature.
● Autotrophs are at the top of the biosphere’s energy conversions, and
hence their biomass usually dominate the total biomass of an
ecosystem.
● The more steps are there in between a living being and the primary
energy of the sun, the less energy is available at the successive
feeding (trophic) levels.
2
3
4
Types of Consumers
● Herbivores are primary consumers. Example: rodents, ungulates.
● Ungulates are hoofed animals such as cow, horse, deer etc.
They are more abundant than secondary consumers
● The secondary consumers are more in number than tertiary
consumers
● Access to food is greater for an omnivore. Omnivory is very
common, and depending on opportunity or need a species can move
up or down one trophic level, as some resources become abundant
or others become scarce.
● The humans have mastered this approach. The food humans have
consumed range from mammoth meat in times of plenty to willow
bark in times of scarcity. 5
Feeding Cascades in a Grassland Ecosystem
In most terrestrial
Ecosystems, the
feeding cascades are
short.

In the East African

8
 Decomposers
They (bacteria, fungi,
worms) play a
critical role in any
ecosystem. They
break down complex
Macromolecules
in dead matter,
recycle the nutrients
and make them
available to the
others: they feed on
all trophic levels. 9
Marine Ecosystems

Marine ecosystems
depend on primary
production by
phytoplankton
(bacteria, cyanobacteria,
archaea and algae).
Marine food webs are
generally more complex
than terrestrial ones. They can easily extend to five and in some case
go up to seven trophic levels. 10
Biomes, Ecosystems, ...

11
Biomass Pyramids
● The biomass density in any
terrestrial ecosystem would
show a pyramid-shaped
distribution, with autotrophs
forming a broad base,
herbivores a smaller
second tier, omnivores and first-order carnivores at the next level
and the rare top predators at the apex.
● The density of the levels vary greatly among ecosystems, but
phytomass is commonly twenty times larger than the biomass of
primary consumers and the biomass of top carnivores may add up
to less than 0.001% of phytomass. 12
A Marine Food Pyramid
(Picture not quite right!)
In marine ecosystems the
pyramid is sort of inverted
for the following reasons:
(1) Phytoplankton are
short-lived. (mostly
between 12–48 hours)
(2) high consumption
rates by zooplankton
and larger herbivores.
The total standing heterotrophic biomass could be from 2 to 4 times
as large as the mass of the phytoplankton.
13
Energetic Advantage of Herbivory
● The number of heterotrophs decrease as one looks at higher &
higher trophic levels, with typically increasing size: top predators
include the largest animals in their respective classes: Eagles
among the birds of prey, tigers & lions among the big cats.
● Herbivory has great energetic advantage, and land the animals
with the largest body mass are megaherbivores such as
elephants, hippos and giraffes in the tropics.
● This was more pronounced in the past, when the largest
herbivores (dinosaurs) were about 10 times heavier than today’s
heaviest species (on land).
14
Some Megaherbivores on Land (mass > 1 tonne)
Maximum mass in tonnes shown in each case

10 4.5

1.5 4.5 2 15
Largest animals ever
Skeleton of an extinct
megaherbivore (a dinosaur)
on land weighing up to 80
tonnes

Blue Whale
The largest known animal ever is
the blue whale, which can weigh
up to 180 tonnes and can be up
to 30 m long, a filter feeding
carnivore which feeds almost
exclusively on krill. Marine
Krill ecosystems are different! 16
Energy Efficiency in Ecosystems
● In any ecosystem no energy loss is as high as that associated with
the first trophic level (photosynthesis) by the primary producers. The
losses are typically > 99%.
● The energy losses during the subsequent transfers to higher trophic
levels are never that high, but net transfers are typically much less
than ten per cent (means losses > 90%).
● The share of phytomass eaten by herbivores normally ranges from
just one or two per cent in temperate forests to as much as fifty to
sixty per cent in some tropical grasslands.
● The transfers are rarely above ten per cent in any temperate
ecosystem, and are mostly around one per cent for vertebrates. 17
Efficiency of Energy Transfer
● Efficiency of energy transfer (ηET) in an ecosystem is defined as
the product of exploitation efficiency (ηE), assimilation efficiency
(ηA) and production efficiency (ηP).
ηET = ηE× ηA× ηP
● Exploitation efficiency: is the ratio of biomass on one trophic level
that is consumed by organisms at the next higher trophic level.
● Assimilation efficiency (the portion of ingested energy that is
actually metabolized) depend on the nature of food: they are low
(< 30%) among herbivores feeding on often digestion-resistant
plant products, very high (> 90%) for carnivores that consume
essentially a lipid & protein diet.
18
Efficiency of Energy Transfer - 2
● The production efficiency (the portion of metabolized energy that is
converted to biomass) is very high among ectotherms. Invertebrates
can convert > 20% , and some insects 50% of assimilated energy
into new biomass, while the mean for endotherms is around 2%, for
large mammals < 3%, and for small mammals and birds < 2%.
● Thus on calculating the efficiency of energy transfer, which is the
product of exploitation, assimilation and production efficiencies, one
finds that the share of energy available at one level that is actually
converted to new biomass at the next level above (called trophic or
ecological efficiency) ranges from a small fraction of 1% for small
birds to around 30% for insects. 19
Schematic of Energy Transfers in an Ecosystem
Note: The numbers are only representative

20
Energy Flow in Ecosystems

21