Assigned Reading for Environmental Conservation

Assigned reading for Environmental Conservation

M. Stephens

You may substitute equivalent sections from Cunningham or another text.

You should read and annotate the texts. Although you do not need to memorize, you should be familiar with the terms and concepts in each section, and be prepared to discuss the material and ask questions in class.

Excerpt fromOnline Biology Book

Adapted by M. Stephens (January 2011)

Chapter 56: Community and Ecosystem Dynamics

Community Density and Stability |

Communities are made up of species adapted to the conditions of that community. Diversity and stability help define a community and are important in environmental studies. Species diversity decreases as we move away from the tropics. Species diversity is a measure of the different types of organisms in a community (also referred to as species richness). Latitudinal diversity gradient refers to species richness decreasing steadily going away from the equator. A hectare (100 acres) of tropical rain forest contains 40-100 tree species, while a hectare of temperate zone forest contains 10-30 tree species. In marked contrast, a hectare of taiga (subarctic forest dominated by evergreen conifers) contains only a paltry 1-5 species! Habitat destruction in tropical countries will cause many more extinctions per hectare than it would in higher latitudes.

Environmental stability is greater in tropical areas, where a relatively stable/constant environment allows more different kinds of species to thrive. Equatorial communities are older because they have been less disturbed by glaciers and other climate changes, allowing time for new species to evolve. Equatorial areas also have a longer growing season.

Change in Communities Over Time | Back to Top

Biological communities, like the organisms that comprise them, can and do change over time.Ecological time focuses on community events that occur over decades or centuries.Geological time focuses on events lasting thousands of years or more.

Community succession is the sequential replacement of species by immigration of new species and local extinction of older ones following a disturbance that creates unoccupied habitats for colonization.The initial rapid colonizer species are the pioneer community. Eventually a climax community of more or less stable but slower growing species eventually develops.

During successionproductivity declinesand diversity increases. These trends tend to increase the biomass (total weight of living tissue) in a community.Succession occurs because each community stage prepares the environment for the stage following it.

Primary succession begins with bare rock and takes a very long time to occur. Weathering by wind and rain plus the actions of pioneer species such as lichens and mosses begin the buildup of soil. Herbaceous(non-woody) plants, including the grasses, grow on deeper soil and shade out shorter pioneer species. Pine trees or deciduous trees eventually take root and in most biomes will form a climax community of plants that are stabile in the environment.

Secondary succession occurs when an environment has been disturbed, such as by fire, geological activity, or human intervention (farming or deforestation in most cases). This form of succession often begins in an abandoned field with soil layers already in place. Compared to primary succession, which must take long periods of time to build or accumulate soil, secondary succession occurs rapidly. The herbaceous pioneering plants give way to pines, which in turn may give way to a hardwood deciduous forest (in the classical old field succession models developed in the eastern deciduous forest biome).

Human activity (such as clearing a climax forest community to establish a farm field consisting of a cultivated pioneering species, say corn or wheat) replaces climax communities with simpler communities.

Communities are composed of species that evolve, so the community must also evolve.Comparing marine communities of 500 million years ago with modern communities shows modern communities composed of quite different organisms.

Disturbance of a Community

The basic effect of human activity on communities is community simplification, an overall reduction of species diversity. Agriculture is a purposeful human intervention in which we create a monoculture of a single favored (crop) species such as corn. Most of the agricultural species are derived from pioneering communities.

Inadvertent human intervention can simplify communities and produce stressed communities that have fewer species as well as a superabundance of some species.Disturbances favor early successional (pioneer) species that can grow and reproduce rapidly.

Ecosystems and Communities | Back to Top

Ecosystems include both living and nonliving components. These living, or biotic, components include habitats and niches occupied by organisms. Nonliving, or abiotic, components include soil, water, light, inorganic nutrients, and weather. An organism's place of residence, where it can be found, is its habitat. A niche is often viewed as the role of that organism in the community, factors limiting its life, and how it acquires food.

Producers, a major niche in all ecosystems, are autotrophic(able to produce/synthesize their own food), usually photosynthetic, organisms. In terrestrial ecosystems, producers are usually green plants. Freshwater and marine ecosystems frequently have algae as the dominant producers.

Consumers are heterotrophic organisms that eat food produced by another organism. Herbivores are a type of consumer that feeds directly on green plants (or another type of autotroph). Since herbivores take their food directly from the producer level, we refer to them as primary consumers. Carnivores feed on other animals (or another type of consumer) and are secondary or tertiary consumers. Omnivores, the feeding method used by humans, feed on both plants and animals. Decomposers are organisms, mostly bacteria and fungi that recycle nutrients from decaying organic material. Decomposers break down detritus, nonliving organic matter, into inorganic matter. Small soil organisms are critical in helping bacteria and fungi shred leaf litter and form rich soil.

Even if communities do differ in structure, they have some common uniting processes such as energy flow and matter cycling, shown in Figure 17.Energy flows move through feeding relationships.The term ecological niche refers to how an organism functions in an ecosystem.Food webs, food chains, and food pyramids are three ways of representing energy flow.

Producers absorb solar energy and convert it to chemical bonds from inorganic nutrients taken from environment. Energy content of organic food passes up food chain; eventually all energy is lost as heat, therefore requiring continual input. Original inorganic elements are mostly returned to soil and producers; can be used again by producers and no new input is required.

Figure 17. The flow of energy through an ecosystem.Image from Purves et al., Life: The Science of Biology, 4th Edition, by Sinauer Associates ( and WH Freeman ( used with permission.

Energy flow in ecosystems, as with all other energy, must follow the two laws of thermodynamics. The first law states that energy is neither created nor destroyed, but instead changes from one form to another (potential to kinetic). The second law mandates that when energy is transformed from one form to another, some usable energy is lost as heat. Thus, in any food chain, some energy must be lost as we move up the chain.

The ultimate source of energy for nearly all life is the Sun. Recently, scientists discovered an exception to this once unchallenged truism: communities of organisms around ocean vents where food chain begins with chemosynthetic bacteria that oxidize hydrogen sulfide generated by inorganic chemical reactions inside the Earth's crust. In this special case, the source of energy is the internal heat engine of the Earth (geothermal energy).

Food chains indicate who eats whom in an ecosystem and represent one path of energy flow through an ecosystem. Natural ecosystems have numerous interconnected food chains. Each level of producer and consumers is a trophic level. Some primary consumers feed on plants and make grazing food chains; others feed on detritus.

The population size in an undisturbed ecosystem is limited by the food supply, competition, predation, and parasitism. Food webs help determine consequences of perturbations: if titmice and vireos fed on beetles and earthworms, insecticides that killed beetleswould increase competition between birds and probably increase predation of earthworms, etc.

The trophic structure(energy/food flows) of an ecosystem forms an ecological pyramid. The base of this pyramid represents the producer trophic level. At the apex is the highest level consumer, the top predator. Other pyramids can be recognized in an ecosystem. A pyramid of numbers is based on how many organisms occupy each trophic level. The pyramid of biomass is calculated by multiplying the average weight for organisms times the number of organisms at each trophic level. An energy pyramid illustrates the amounts of energy available at each successive trophic level.The energy pyramid always shows a decrease moving up trophic levels because:

Only a certain amount of food is captured and eaten by organisms on the next trophic level.
Some of food that is eaten cannot be digested and exits digestive tract as undigested waste.
Only a portion of digested food becomes part of the organism's body; rest is used as source of energy.
Substantial portion of food energy goes to build up temporary ATP in mitochondria that is then used to synthesizeproteins, lipids, carbohydrates, fuel contraction of muscles, nerve conduction, and other functions.
Only about 10% of the energy available at a particular trophic level is incorporated into tissues at the next level. Thus, a larger population canbe sustained by eating grain than by eating grain-fed animals since 100 kg of grain would result in 10 human kg but if fed to cattle, the result, by the time that reaches the human is a paltry1 human kg!

A food chain is a series of organisms each feeding on the one preceding it.There are two types of food chain: decomposer and grazer.Grazer food chains begin with algae and plants and end in a carnivore.Decomposer chains are composed of waste and decomposing organisms such as fungi and bacteria.

Food chains are simplifications of complex relationships.A food web is a more realistic and accurate depiction of energy flow. Food webs are networks of feeding interactions among species.

The food pyramid provides a detailed view of energy flow in an ecosystem.The first level consists of the producers (usually plants).All higher levels are consumers. The shorter the food chain the more energy is available to organisms.

Most humans occupy a top carnivore role. Only about 2% of all calories available from producers ever reach the tissues of top carnivores.“Leakage” of energy occurs between each feeding level.Most natural ecosystems therefore do not have more than five levels to their food pyramids.Large carnivores are rare because there is so little energy available to them atop the pyramid.

Food generation by producers varies greatly between ecosystems.Net primary productivity (NPP) is the rate at which producer biomass is formed. Tropical forests and swamps are the most productive terrestrial ecosystems.Reefs and estuaries are the most productive aquatic ecosystems.All of these productive areas are in danger from human activity.Humans redirect nearly 40% of the net primary productivity and directly or indirectly use nearly 40% of all the land food pyramid.This energy is not available to natural populations.

Terms| Back to Top

biomass / biomes / carnivores / climax community / closed community
community / community simplification / community stability / community succession / consumers
desert / ecological time / ecosystem / ecotones / energy flow
freshwater biome / Food webs, food chains, and food pyramids / grasslands / herbivores
latitudinal diversity gradient / marine biome / matter cycling
net primary productivity (NPP) / niches / omnivores / open community
primary succession / producers / secondary succession
species diversity / temperate forest biome / tropical rain forests / tundra / taiga

FYI: Supplemental Resources (optional exploration on your own)

The Rain Forest Report Card Maps, images, morphed movies showing the effects of deforestation, and more make this a site to see for further information about the rain forests and their plight.
Manu: Peru's Hidden Rain Forest PBS documentary, part of the Living Edens series. Links to animals, plants, and people of this area. Quite a nice resource, as are many of the PBS websites!
Population Ecology This site, maintained by Alexi Sharov of the Department of Entomology at Virginia Tech provides a great start to the study of population ecology. Links to people, organizations, online lectures, and other items of interest are provided.
Planet Earth - a suite of interactive learning activities on ecology Aimed at high school students and teachers this site offers a series of great activities that will allow application of the concepts learned to real world problems, such as the Wolves of Yellowstone.
Types of Deserts This part of a larger U.S. Geological Survey page provides additional details on the types of deserts and related features.

Last modified: Tuesday May 18 2010

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Community and Ecosystem Dynamics_Online Biology Book p. 1 of 7