Ecosystems

Note series for Environmental Science

“Are dynamic complexes of biotic communities and their associated abiotic environments interacting as functional units.”

-U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Composition of Ecosystems

• Individuals (species) live together in groups called populations

Ecosystem Energy Flows

http://www.globalchange.umich.edu

Earth as a support system

Composition of the troposphere

http://liftoff.msfc.nasa.gov/academy/space/atmosphere.html

http://otn.uoregon.edu/skmiller

marine.rutgers.edu

Biogeochemical Cycles

• Cycles on earth including gases…- Oxygen- Carbon- Nitrogen

• Cycles involving solids…- Phosphorus- Sulfur

Ecosystem Interactions

• There are many types of ecosystems in the world with many levels of interactions called “trophic interactions”

http://www.globalchange.umich.edu

Lake Trophic Interactions

Carbon Cycle

NYU Image www.cotf.edu/ete/modules/carbon/earthfire.html

Nitrogen Cycle

http://muextension.missouri.edu/xplor/waterq/wq0252.htm

Phosphorus Cycle

http://www.bsi.vt.edu/chagedor/biol_4684/Cycles/Pcycle.html

Sulfur Cycle

www.agnr.umd.edu/users/agron/nutrient/Factshee/sulfur/Sulfur.html

Taken from Garfield.com