10.

1 Early Ideas about Evolution

Early scientist proposed ideas about evolution

- Evolution is the process of biological change by which descendants come to differ from their
ancestors
- In the 1700s many fields of science developed new ways of looking at the world during that
century
- Four important scientist laid the foundations upon which Darwin would later build his ideas
- Carolus Linnaeus
 In the 1700s, the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus developed a classification system to
group organisms by their similarities, they system also reflects evolutionary
relationships still in use today
 Linnaeus abandoned the common belief of that time that organisms were fixed and did
not change
 He propose that some might have risen through hybridization- a crossing that he could
observe through experiments with varieties, or species, of plants
- A species is a group of organisms that are closely related and can mate to reproduce fertile
offspring
- Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon
 Buffon, a French naturalist of the 1700s, challenged many of the accepted ideas of the
day
 Base of evidence of past life on Earth, he proposed that species shared ancestors
instead of arising separately
 He suggested that the Earth was much older
- Erasmus Darwin
 Borin in 1731, Charles Darwin’s grandfather was a respected English doctor and poet
 He proposed that all living things were descended from a common ancestor and that
more complex forms of life arose from less complex forms
- Jean Baptiste Lamarck
 In 1809, a French naturalist named Lamarck proposed that all organisms evolved toward
perfection and complexity
 Like other scientist of the time, he did not think that species became extinct
 He reasoned that species must have evolved into different forms
 Proposed that changes in the environment caused an organism’s behavior to change,
leading to greater use of disuse of a structure or organ would become larger or
smaller as a result inheritance of acquired characteristics
 The organism would pass on these changes to its offspring
 Did not explain how traits were passed down
 Darwin was influenced by Lamarck’s ideas that changes in physical characteristics could
be inherited and were driven by environmental changes over time.
Theories of geological change set the stage for Darwin’s theory

- The age of Earth was a key issue in the early debates over evolution
- The common view was that Earth was created about 6000 years earlier, and that since that time,
neither Earth nor the species that lived on it had changed
- Georges Cuvier
 did not believe species could change but that they did become extinct
 He observed how each layer of rock had its own specific type of fossil
 Fossils are traces of organisms that existed in the past
 He explained his observations with the theory known as catastrophism
 - The theory of catastrophism states that natural disasters such as floods and volcanic eruptions
have happened often during Earth’s long-term history
- These events shaped landforms and cause species to become extinct in the process
- James Hutton
 In the late 1700s, the Scottish geologist James Hutton proposed that the changes he
observed in landforms results from slow changes over a long period of time, a principle
that became known as gradualism  slow processes that happened in the past
 He argued that the laying down of soil of the creation of canyons by rivers cutting
through rick was not the result of large-scale events
- Charles Lyell
 English geologist, Chales Lyell published Principle of Geology in which he expanded
Hutton’s theory of gradualism into the theory of uniformitarianism
 This theory states that the geologic processes that shape Earth are unform through time
 Uniformitarianism combines Hutton’s idea of gradual change over time with Lyell’s
observations that such changes have occurred at a constant rate and are ongoing
 Uniformitarianism soon replaced catastrophism as the favored theory of geologic
change

10.2 Darwin’s Observations

Darwin observed differences in appearance among island species

- Darwin was struck by the variation of traits among similar species that he observed in all his
travels
- Variation is the difference in the physical traits of an individual from those of other individuals in
the groups to which it belongs
- Variation can occur either among members of different species (interspecific variation) or
among individuals of the same species (intraspecific variation)
- Darwin noted that the species found on one island looked different from those on nearby
islands and those on the nearest mainland
- Observations led Darwin to realize that species may somehow be able to adapt to their
surroundings
- An adaption is a feature that allows an organism to better survive and reproduce in its
environment
- Adaption can lead to genetic change in a population over time

Darwin observed fossil and geologic evidence supporting an ancient earth

- Darwin found fossil evidence of species changing over time

- He found fossils of huge animals such as Glyptodon
- These fossils suggested that in order for such change to occur, Earth must be much more than
6000 years old
- Darwin’s observation on his voyage supported Lyell’s theory that daily geologic processes can
add up to great change over a long period of time
- Darwin later extended the ideas of an old Earth and slow, gradual change to the evolution of
organisms evolutionary gradualism
10.3 Theory of Natural Selection

Several Key insights led to Darwin’s idea for natural selection

- Darwin also found great insight in his home country of England the work of farmers and
breeders
- Darwin noticed a lot of variation in domesticate species plants and animals showed variation
in traits that were not shown in their wild relatives
- Through selection of certain traits, breeders could produce a great amount of diversity
- The process by which humans change a species by breeding it for certain traits is called artificial
selection humans act as the selective agent
- Humans determine which traits are favorable and then breed individuals that show those traits
- Darwin turned to the hobby of breeding pigeons
- He had noticed certain traits being selected in animals such as livestock and pets
- In order for artificial- or natural- selection to occur, the trait must be heritable
- Heritability is the ability of a trait to be passed down from one generation to the next
- Darwin compared what he learned about breeding to his ideas on adaptation
- In artificial selection, features are favored over generations if these traits are liked by breeders
- In nature, however, the environment creates the selective pressure that determines if a trait is
passed on or not selective agent
- Natural selection is a mechanism by which individuals that have inherited beneficial adaptations
show differential reproductive success they tend to produce more offspring on average than
do other individuals
- In nature, characteristics are selected only if they give advantages to individuals in the
environment as it is right now
- He knew that it sometimes took many generations for breeders to produce the varieties he had
observed

Struggle for Survival

- English economist Thomas Malthus had proposed that resources such as food, water, and
shelter were natural limits to population growth
- Disease and a limited food supply kept the population smaller
- Darwin applied this to nature
- A population is all the individuals of a species that live in an area
- Darwin had noticed in the Galápagos Islands that in any population, such as the tortoises or the
finches, some individuals had variations that were particularly well-suited to their environment
- He proposed that these adaptations arose over many generations
- Darwin called this process of evolution “descent with modification”

Natural Selection explains how evolution works

- An English naturalist named Alfred Russel Wallace independently developed a theory very
similar to Darwin’s
- Darwin published his ideas in the book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
- There are four main principles to the theory of natural selection: variation, overproduction,
adaptation, and descent with modification
  Variation The heritable differences, or variations, that exist in every population are the
basis for natural selection. The differences among individuals result from differences in
the genetic material of the organisms, whether inherited from a parent or resulting from
a genetic mutation
 Overproduction while having offspring raises the chance that some will survive, it also
results in competition between offspring for resources
 Adaptation Sometimes a certain variation allows an individual to survive better than
other individual it competes against in its environment. More successful individuals are
“naturally selected” to live longer and to produce more offspring that share those
adaptations for their environment
 Descent with modification Over time, natural selection will result in species with
adaptations that are well suited for survival and reproduction in an environment. More
individuals will have the trait in every following generation, as long as the environmental
conditions continue to remain beneficial for that trait
- Large jaws and teeth became adaptations for jaguars when resources became scarce and they
resorted to eating reptiles
- Jaguars that did not adapt reproduced less
- In biology the term fitness is a measure of the ability to survive and produce more offspring
relative to other members of the population in a given environment

Natural Selection acts on existing variation

- Natural selection acts on phenotypes, or physical traits, rather than on genetic material itself
- New alleles are not made by natural selection; they occur by genetic mutations
- Natural selection can only act on traits that already exists

Changing Environments

- Ecologists Peter and Rosemary Grant observed an example of natural selection acting on
existing traits within a population of medium ground finches on one of the Galápagos Islands
- Large beaked finches in the population were able to crack the large, tough sees, and they did
not starve
- The next year they noted a big increase of large-beaked hatchings and the finches with small
beaks had died
- A trait that was already in the population became favorable for survival because of a change in
the environment, and thus was passed on to future generations
- As an environment changes, different traits will become beneficial
- With evolution, a trait that is an advantage today may be a disadvantage in the future

Adaptations as compromises

- One mistake people make about natural selection is to think that adaptive characteristics
passed down over a long-time result in individuals that are perfectly suited to their
surroundings.
- This is not the case; for example, some structures may take on new functions
- The panda’s “thumb,” is actually an enlarged wrist bone
 - The ancestors of today’s pandas had five full digits like today’s bears, but those early pandas
with bigger wrist bones had an advantage in eating bamboo
- It functions both as a wrist bone and a thumb

10.4 Evidence of Evolution

Evidence for evolution in Darwin’s time came from several sources

- Darwin found evidence from a wide range of sources to support his argument for evolution
- The most important and convincing support came from fossils, geography, developmental
similarities, and anatomy

Fossils

- Even before Darwin, scholars studying fossils knew that organisms changed over time
- They also think about its age, its location, and what the environment was like when the
organism it came form was alive
- Studies suggested that the fossil organisms in the bottom layer were more primitive than those
in the upper, or never, layers
- Geologists during this time were mostly interested in the order in which fossils were found
within rock strata as a record of natural events such as earthquakes, not as proof of evolution
- However, the sequential nature of fossil groups and other findings in the fossil record supported
Darwin’s concept of descent with modification

Geography

- Recall that during the Beagle expedition Darwin saw that island plants and animals looked like,
but were not identical to, species on the South American continent
- He extended his observation, proposing that island species most closely species on the nearest
mainland
- Darwin hypothesized that at some point in the past, some individuals from the South American
mainland had migrated to the islands
- This relationship between island and mainland species is today an important principle of
biogeography, the study of the distribution of organisms around the world
- Finches in different islands shared a common ancestor

Developmental Similarities

- When studying barnacles, Darwin noticed how although adult crabs and barnacles are
significantly different, their free-swimming larvae are very similar in appearance
- These observation formed an important part of Darwin’s evidence for common descent
- Embryology provides evidence of evolution
 Identical larvae, different adult body forms
 Similar embryos, diverse organisms

Anatomy
 - Some of Darwin’s best evidence came from comparing the body parts of different species
- Chief among such evidence were homologous structures
- Homologous structures are features that are similar in structure but appear in different
organisms and have different organisms and have different functions
- Their appearance across different species offers strong evidence for common descent
- It would be unlikely for many species to have such similar anatomy if each species evolved
independently
- The study of anatomy provides evidence of evolution:
 Homologous structures: similar in structure but different in function
 Evidence of a common ancestor
- Homologous structures are different in detail but similar in structure and relation to each other
- Organisms with homologous structures share a common ancestor
- The idea of common descent provides a logical explanation for how homologous structures
appeared in diverse groups
- Some structures found in different species have the same functions but did not evolve from a
common ancestor
- Environment can also determine homologous structures
- Analogous structures: are structures that perform a similar function but are not similar in origin
- This means that in each of the organisms, the analogous structures did not derive from the same
original structure
- Their ancestors faced similar environment challenges and evolved similar adaptation to
overcome these challenges

Structural patterns are clues to the history

- Some organisms have structures or organs that seem to lack any useful function, or at least are
not longer used for their original purpose
- Underdeveloped or unused features are called vestigial structures, are remnants of organs or
structures found in an early ancestor that no longer serve a useful function or may now serve a
different function
- Wings in ostriches are examples of vestigial structures
- In humans, the appendix is often cited as an example of a vestigial structure
- Vestigial structures did not get smaller in one individual organism
- It took many generations for those organs to shrink

10.5 Evolutionary Biology Today

Fossils provide a record of evolution

- Paleontology, the study of fossils or extinct organisms, continues to provide new information
and support current hypotheses about how evolution occurs
- Fossil record is not complete, but no fossil evidence that contradicts evolution has ever been
found
- Since Darwin’s time, however, many transitional forms between species have been discovered,
filling in large gaps in the fossil record
- The fossil record today includes many thousands of species that show the change in forms over
time that Darwin outlined in his theory
 - These “missing links” demonstrate the evolution of traits within groups as well as the common
ancestors between groups
- Although scientists classify organisms into groups, the mix of traits in transitional species often
makes it difficult to tell where one group ends, and another begins

Molecular and genetic evidence support fossil and anatomical evidence

- As with homologous traits, very different species have similar molecular and genetic
mechanisms
- Because all living things have DNA, they share the same genetic code and make most of the
same proteins from the same 20 amino acids
- DNA or protein sequence comparisons can be used to show probable evolutionary relationships
between species

DNA sequence analysis

- Recall that the sequences of nucleotides in a gene change over time due to mutations
- DNA sequence analysis depends on the fact that the more related two organisms are, the more
similar their DNA will be
- Because there are thousands of genes in most organisms, DNA contains a huge amount of
information on evolutionary history
- Because all living organisms share the same genetic code and use the same 20 amino acids, it
has been possible to determine that organisms share a remarkable number of proteins that are
similar to one another

Pseudogenes

- Sequences of DNA nucleotides known as pseudogenes also provide evidence of evolution

- Pseudogenes no longer function but are still carried along with functional DNA
- They can also change as they are passed on through generations, so they provide another way
to figure out evolutionary relationships
- Similarities between pseudogenes, however, must reflect a common ancestor

Protein comparisons

- Similarities among cell types across organisms can be revealed by comparing their proteins, a
technique called molecular fingerprinting
- Cells from different species that have the same proteins most likely come from a common
ancestor

Homeobox genes

- Homeobox genes control the development of specific structures

- These sequences of genes are found in many organisms, from fruit flies to humans
- They also indicate a very distant common ancestor

Evolution unites all fields of biology

 - Scientists are still actively studying evolution through natural selection
- New tools are providing more data than ever before
- Considering the number of proteins in a single organism, the amount of data gathered through
molecular evidence alone is overwhelming
- Scientists from many fields of science are shedding new light on the mechanisms and patterns
of evolution
- In some cases, the use of modern technology has supported fossil evidence
- The idea of common descent helps biologists understand where new diseases come from, as
well as how to best manage endangered species

11.1 Genetic Variation within populations

Genetic variation in a population increases the chance that some individuals will survive

- A phenotype is a trait produced by one or more genes

- In a population, there may be a wide range of phenotypes
- Natural selection acts on different phenotypes in a population
- The expression of different phenotypes, however, depends on genetic variation in a population
- A population with a lot of genetic variation likely has a wide range of phenotypes
- The greater the variation in phenotypes, the more likely it is that some individuals can survive in
a changing environment
- Gene variation is stored in a population’s gene pool- the combined alleles of all the individuals
in a population
- Different combinations of alleles in a gene pool can be formed when organisms mate and have
offspring
- Each allele exists at a certain rate, or frequency
- An allele frequency is a measure of how common a certain type of allele is in the population
- You can calculate allele frequency
 First, count the number of times an allele occurs in a gene pool
 Then, divide by the total number of alleles for that gene in the gene pool

Genetic variation comes from several sources

- Mutation: A mutation is a random change in the DNA of a gene. This change can form a new
allele. Mutation in reproductive cells can passed on to offspring. This increases the genetic
variation in the gene pool. Because there are many genes in each individual and many
individuals in a population, new mutation form frequently in gene pools
- Recombination: New allele combinations form in offspring through a process called
recombination. Most recombination occurs during meiosis: when gametes are made, each
parent’s alleles are arranged in new ways. This shuffling of alleles result in many different
genetic combinations
- Hybridization, the crossing of two different species that share common genes, can also be a
source of genetic variation when similar species live in the same area and individuals cannot
easily find mates of their own specie

11.2 Natural selection in populations

Natural selection acts on distribution of traits

- Normal distribution: frequency is highest near the mean value and decrease toward each
extreme end of the range
- When the frequency values are graphed, the result is a bell-shaped curve
- For some traits, all phenotypes provide an equal chance of survival
- The distribution for these traits generally shows a normal distribution
- Phenotypes near the middle of the range tend to be most common, while the extremes are less
common
- Environmental conditions can change, and a certain phenotype may become an advantage
- Natural selection favors individuals with this phenotype
- These individuals are able to survive and reproduce at higher rates than individuals with less
favorable phenotypes
- Therefore, alleles associated with favorable phenotypes increase in frequency through
differential reproductive success

Natural selection can change the distribution of a trait in one of three ways

- Microevolution is the observable change in the allele frequencies of a population over time
occurs within a small scale-within a small population
- Natural selection can lead to microevolution: change the distribution of a trait along one of
three paths: directional, stabilizing, or disruptive selection

Directional selection:

- Favors phenotypes at one extremes of a traits range

- Causes shift in a population’s phenotypic distribution
- An extreme phenotype that was once rare in a population becomes common
- The mean value of a trait shifts the direction of the more advantageous phenotype
- Bacteria develop resistant phenotypes against antibiotics

Stabilizing selection:

- The intermediate phenotype is favored and becomes more common in the population
- The distribution becomes stable at the intermediate phenotype rather than shifting toward one
of the extremes
- Flies that produce middle-sized galls become more common
- Stabilizing selection increases the number of individual with immediate phenotypes
- Selection against both extremes, decrease genetic diversity of the population
- Extremes become less common and some phenotypes at extremes may even be lost

Disruptive selection

- Both extreme phenotypes are favored while individuals with intermediate phenotypes are
selected against by something in nature
- Young male lazuli vary in their color
- Dominant adult males have brightest blue feathers and have their pick on the best territory
more successful at attracting mates
 - Dominant adult males are aggressive toward young buntings since they see them as threats
- Dullest brown win a mate because bright blue leave them alone
- Both extreme phenotypes are favored in this situation can lead to the formation of new
species

11.3 Other Mechanisms of Evolution

Gene flow is the movement of alleles between populations

- When an organism joins a new population and reproduces, its alleles become part of that
population’s gene pool
- At the same time, these alleles are removed from the gene pool of its former population
- The movement of alleles from one population to another is called gene flow
- For many animals, gene flow occurs when individuals move between populations
- Gene flow increases the genetic variation of receiving population
- Gene flow between neighboring populations keeps their gene pools similar
- The less gene flow that occurs between two populations, the more genetically different the two
populations can become
- A lack of gene flow also increases the chance that the two populations will evolve into different
species

Genetic drift is a change in allele frequencies due to chance

- Small populations are more likely to be affected by chance

- Due to chance alone, some alleles are likely to decrease in frequency and become eliminated
- Other alleles are likely to increase in frequency and become fixed
- These changes in allele frequencies that are due to chance are called genetic drift
- Genetic drift causes a loss of genetic diversity in a population
- It is most common in small populations

Bottleneck

- A population bottleneck can lead to genetic drift

- It occurs when an event drastically reduces the population size
- The bottleneck effect is a genetic drift that occurs after a bottleneck event
- After an event drastically reduces the population

Founder effect

- A genetic drift that occurs after a small number of organisms colonize an area and start a new
population
- The gene pools of these populations are often very different from those of the larger
populations

Effects of genetic drift

- Population has less variation organisms are less likely to adapt and survive
- Another problem is that alleles that are lethal in homozygous individuals may be carried by
heterozygous individuals and become more common in the gene pool due to chance alone
Sexual selection occurs when certain traits increase mating success

- Mating can have an important effect on the evolution of a population

- Sexual selection occurs when certain traits increase reproductive success
- Intrasexual selection: competition among males
- Intersexual selection: display certain traits to females
- The cost of reproduction often differs for males and females
 Males produce many sperm continuously, making the value of each sperm relatively
small. They can make many investments at little cost.
 Females are much more limited in the number of offspring they can produce in each
reproductive cycle. Therefore, each investment they make is more valuable  females
are more picky
-

11. 6 Patterns in evolution

Evolution through natural selection is not random

- Because mutations and genetic drift cannot be predicted, they are called random events
- These random events are sources of genetic diversity
- Individuals with traits that are better adapted for their environment have a better chance of
surviving and reproducing than do individuals without these traits
- In directional, stabilizing, and disruptive selection, the effects of natural selection add up over
many generations
- Natural selection pushes a population’s traits in an advantageous direction
- When the environment changes, different traits may become advantageous
- Alleles associated with these traits add up in the population’s gene pool
- The response of species to environmental challenges and opportunities is not random

Convergent evolution

- Evolution toward similar characteristics in unrelated species is called convergent evolution

- For example, wings on birds and insects

Divergent evolution

- When closely related species evolve in different directions, they become increasingly different
through divergent evolution
- The evolution of the red fox and the kit fox is an example of this trend
 Though closely related, the two species have different appearances that are result of
adapting to different environments

Species can shape each other over time

- Evolutionary paths of two species become connected

Beneficial relationships through coevolution

 - The acacia plant and ants share an evolutionary history: the hollow thorns and nectar producing
leaves of the acacia and the stinging of the ants have evolved due to the relationship between
the two species
- The ants protect the plant by stinging animals that try to eat the leaves
- Such relationships form through coevolution, the process in which two or more species evolve in
response to changes in each other

Evolutionary Arms Races

- Coevolution can also occur in competitive relationships

- These interactions can lead “evolutionary arms races” in which each species responds to
pressure from the other through better adaptations over many generations
- Natural selection favors competing species that can overcome the effects of pressure from other
species

Species can become extinct

- The elimination of a species from Earth is called extinction

- Extinction often occurs when a species as a while is unable to adapt to change in its
environment
- Biologists divided extinction events into two categories- background extinctions and mass
extinctions
- Although they differ in degree, the effect of both is the same: the permanent loss of species
from Earth

Background

- Extinctions that occurs continuously but at a very low rate are called background extinctions
- They are part of the cycle of life on Earth
- Background extinctions events usually affect only one or a few species in a relatively small area
- They can be caused by local changes in the environment, such as the introduction of a new
predator or a decrease in food supply

Mass extinctions

- Much rarer than background extinctions

- These events are much more intense and occur at the global level
- They destroy many species
- Thought to occur suddenly in geologic time, usually because of a catastrophic event
 Asteroid, ice age
-

Speciation often occurs in patterns

- The theory of punctuated equilibrium states that episodes of speciation occur suddenly in
geologic time and are followed by long periods of little evolutionary change, or stasis
- Paleontologist Niles Eldredge and evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould originally proposed
the theory of punctuated equilibrium in 1972
 - They proposed this theory after studying fossils that showed evidence of the sudden appearance
of a new bodily structure
- The theory of punctuated equilibrium was written as a revision of Darwin’s idea that new
species arise through gradual transformations of ancestral species
- Darwin wrote that “the periods, during which species have undergone modification, though long
as measured by years, have probably been short in comparison with the periods during which
they retained the same form.”
- Modern studies show us that in stable ecosystems, most species are well adapted and generally
resistant to change, unless some outside force causes disruption
- In the case of punctuated equilibrium, this is believed to occur because a portion of a
population becomes isolated and undergoes a speciation event
- This isolation may be due to some sort of catastrophe, after which those organisms able to
evolve quickly are more likely to survive
- Isolation may also occur as a result of long-term environmental changes
- Rather than existing species moving in to fill vacancies in a changed ecosystem, in punctuated
equilibrium, new speciation occurs suddenly following long interval of stasis
- The process involving diversification of one ancestral species into many descent species is
referred to as adaptive radiation
- These descendant species are usually adapted to a wide range of environments
 Variation found in Galapagos finches

13.4 Food chains and food webs

A food chain is a model that shows a sequence of feeding relationships

- The simplest way to look at energy flow in an ecosystem is through a food chain
- A food chain is a sequence that links species by feeding relationships
- Rather than describe potential relationships, this model chain only follow the connection
between one producer and a single chain of consumers within an ecosystem
 Grama grass desert cottontail Harris’s hawk

Types of consumers

- Consumers organisms that eat other organisms

- Herbivores: organisms that only eat plants
- Carnivores: organisms that eat only animals
- Omnivores: organisms that eat both plants and animals
- Detritivores: organisms that eat detritus, or dead organic matter
- Decomposers: are detritivores that break down organic matter into simpler compound.
Decomposers are important to the stability of an ecosystem because they return vital nutrients
back into the environment
- Food chains are especially helpful in describing feeding relationships among extremely selective
eaters, known as specialist
- A specialist is a consumer that primarily eats one specific organism or feed on a very small
variety of organisms
 - Specialists are very sensitive to changes in the availability of prey
- Most species do not rely on a single source of food generalists
- Generalists are consumers that have a varying diet

Trophic levels

- Trophic levels are the levels of nourishment in a food chain

- For example, the producer-herbivore-carnivore chain has three trophic levels
- Carnivores are at the highest trophic level, herbivores are second trophic level, and producers
are at the first
- Energy flow up the food chain from the lowest trophic level to the highest
- Omnivores, such as humans that eat both plants and animals, may be listed at different trophic
levels in different food chains

A food web shows a complex network of feeding relationships

- Generalists may be involved in many food chains, depending on which links are in the chain
- As a result, scientists use food webs to describe these interconnections
- A food web is a model that shows the complex network of feeding relationships and the flow of
energy within and sometimes beyond an ecosystem
- At each link in a food web, some energy is stored within an organism, and some energy is
dissipated into the environment
- The stability of any food web depends on the presence of producers, as they form the base of
the food web
- An organism may have multiple feeding relationships within a food web
13.5 Cycling Matter

Matter cycles in and out of the ecosystem

H2O cycles through the environment

- The hydrologic, or H2O, cycle is the circular pathway of an H2O on Earth

- Organisms all have bodies made mostly of H2O

Elements essential for life also cycle through ecosystems

- A biogeochemical cycle is the movement of a particular chemical through the biological (living)
and nonliving geological parts of an ecosystem
- The main processes involved in the O2 cycle are photosynthesis and respiration

O2 cycle indirectly through an ecosystem by the cycling of other nutrients

- Respiration CO2 photosynthesis O2

Carbon is the building bloc of life

- The carbon cycle moves carbon from the atmosphere, through the food web and returns to the
atmosphere
- Carbon is emitted by the burning of fossils fuels
- Some carbon is stored for long periods of time in areas called carbon sinks

The N cycle mostly takes place underground

- Some bacteria convert N into NH3 through a process called N fixation

- Some N-fixing bacteria live in nodules on the roots of plants; other live freely in the soil

NH3 released into the soil is transformed into NH4 (ammonium)

- Nitrifying bacteria change NH3 into NO3

- N moves through the food web and returns to the soil during decomposition

The P cycle takes place at the and bellow ground level

- PO43 is released by the weathering of rocks

- P moves through the food web and returns to the soil during decomposition
- P leaches into groundwater from the soil and is locked in sediments
- Both mining and agriculture add P into the environment
-