OUR Ecological Footprint - 11 1. 11. The hierarchical nature and processes of different levels of...
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Transcript of OUR Ecological Footprint - 11 1. 11. The hierarchical nature and processes of different levels of...
• Individual organism: How do structure, physiology, and behavior lead to the individual’s survival and reproduction?
•Population: What determines the number of individuals and their variation in time and space?
• Community: What determines the diversity and relative abundance of organisms living together?
• Ecosystem: How does energy flow and matter cycle in the biotic and abiotic environment?
• Biosphere: How do air, water, and the energy and chemicals they contain circulate globally?
Ecosystem Ecology: Interactions between abiotic and biotic factors at a given location as relates to: energy flow and cycling of matter.
IB 452: Ecosystem Ecology fall 2009
IB 440: Plants and Global Change
spring 2009
Energy flow in ecosystemsObjectives:
The ecosystem obeys thermodynamic principles.• Trophic pyramids for energy, biomass, numbers• Primary production: efficiencies and factors causing variation among biomes• Secondary production:• Intertrophic transfers: efficiencies and food chain length Intratrophic transfers: efficiencies
Ecosystem: an energy-transforming machine
• Exchanges of matter and energy among components
• Obey thermodynamic principles that govern energy transformations
• Law 1: Conservation of energy• “balance the books”• Law 2: Inefficient transformation of energy• “heat tax”
Primary Production:
• by plants• process of converting light energy to
chemical bond energy in carbohydrates (via photosynthesis!)• for each g of C assimilated, 39 KJ energy
stored• rate determines rate of energy supply to
rest of ecosystem
IRGA - Infrared gas analzyer:measure CO2 in vs. out: in sunlight (NPP) and dark (respiration); estimate GPP
*** Measurements of PP by IRGA
Full sun: CO2 depleted from chamber at rate of 12 mg CO2 per 100 cm2 leaf area per hourDark: CO2 released by leaf into chamber at rate of 1.5 mg CO2 per 100 cm2 leaf area per hour
What is the rate of NPP for this leaf? Explain.What is the rate of respiration for this leaf? Explain.What is the rate of GPP for this leaf? Explain.
Figure 3
Limits on Productivity• Photosynthetic efficiency • (% energy from sun converted to NPP) = 1-2%• Net production efficiency (NPP/GPP) 30% tropics 75-80% temperate ***why difference?
• Light• Temperature• Precipitation• Nutrients• CO2
NPP vs. nitrogen (N in rubisco in PS)
Figure 6
Nutrient use efficiency =g production per g N assimilated
NPP + > [CO2]
• To what extent is PS limited by
amount of CO2?
• To what extent does vegetation
act as a C sink?
1° productivity of aquatic ecosystems
depends on [nutrients].
• Freshwater lakes: • P often limiting; • with low N/P, blue-green algae increase NPP
because they can fix additional N;• with high N/P, green algal ‘blooms’ occur
• Open ocean:• near shore: N often limiting • open ocean: silica and Fe more limiting
PP in aquatic ecosystems - highest where nutrients regenerated in sediments reach light zone.
Figure 11
Question: Is NPP in the open ocean limited by nutrients (e.g Fe)?•Hypothesis: NPP in the open ocean is limited
by availability of iron.
•Experimental setup?
•Prediction: Amount of chlorophyll a increases both at surface and 30 m deep in area with added Fe relative to area without Fe.
Figure 12
Energy flows through:
• Food chain – energy passes through many steps or links
• Trophic level (feeding level) = each link in food chain
• Two parallel food chains
– Plant-based
– Decomposer-based
Food chains represent energy relationships.
Producers (autotrophs)
Consumers(heterotrophs)
Figure 15
90% lost at each level
100
10
1
.1
Energy Pyramid: 10% law of energy transfer; 2nd law limits number of levels.
Figure 16
Energy transfer between trophic levelsdepends on:
• NPP
• efficiencies of transfer between trophic levels
• residence time
longer time--> > accumulation of energy
sun1
20
15
10
Ecological (food chain) efficiency =net production of trophic level_n net production of trophic level n-1
Figure 19
Ecological (food chain ) efficiency
Production of each trophic level =
5 – 20% that of level below it
• Replaces the “10% law”= an average; not fixed
• Often lower on land (5-15%) than aquatic (15-20%)
Energy (kcal m-2 yr-1)
Energy production Primary Primary Secondary
__or removal_____ Producers Consumers Consumers
Non-consumed production 704 70 13
Removed by consumers 176 34 0
Respiration 234 44 18
Gross production (totals) 1114____ 148 ____ 31____
1) Calculate NPP. _____
2) Calculate Ecological Efficiency during 2 transfers
(= food chain efficiency). ______ ______
3) What ultimately happens to 1) the energy and 2) the
biomass that is not consumed in this lake?
Figure 20
What limits length of food chain?
• H1: Energetics • Availability of energy limits to 5-7 levels• Depends on: NPP energy needed by consumers average ecological efficiency
• H2: Dynamic stability Longer chains less stable because: Fluctuations at lower trophic levels magnified at higher levels ---> extinction of top predators.
***Do aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems have more trophic levels? What factor contributes most to variation in food chain length among these ecosystems?
Community NPP Consumer Ecological # Trophic Ingestion Efficiency% Levels
Open ocean 500 0.1 25 7.1Coastal marine 8000 10.0 20 5.1Grassland 2000 1.0 10 4.3Tropical forest 8000 10.0 5 3.2
Figure 22
Secondary production
• By non-photosynthesizers
• Amount of chemical energy in consumer’s food converted to biomass /unit time
Energy flow within a trophic level Secondary production = assimilated energy – respiration – excretion
Figure 23
Some general rules
• Assimilation efficiency increases at higher trophic levels.
• Net and gross production efficiencies decrease at higher trophic level.
• Ecological efficiency averages about 10%.• About 1% of NPP ends up as production
on third trophic level;• The pyramid of energy narrows quickly.