Earth & Life Science

Earth & Life Science:
GROUP 5 PRESENTATION.
Grade 11- Freedom
The Principles of the Ecosystem.
 What are the different principles that govern an ecosystem?

The biotic factors in an ecosystem refer to the living organisms such as
bacteria, plants, and animals. The abiotic factors refer to the non-living things
such as soil, climate conditions, and terrain.
The fundamental principles of the ecosystem include adaptation and
behavior, organizational levels, biodiversity, and energy flow.
 Adaptation and Behavior
 The environment is constantly changing. Because
of its changes, organisms constantly undergo
adaptation — the process of change to
accommodate environmental conditions over a
short period of time.
 Organisms are capable of adapting due to their
behavior. Behavior is an organism’s response to
biotic and abiotic stimuli.
 Abiotic factors in the environment which include
climatic conditions can influence an organism’s
adaptation and behavior. For instance, certain
animals undergo hibernation during the winter
season.
 Biotic factors such as availability of prey, or
predator-prey relationships can dictate how
organisms interact with each other. For example,
when there is limited prey for predators, mass
migratory patterns may occur to ensure their
survival.
The Principles of the Ecosystem
Example
 Birds and monarch butterflies are capable of migration
due to their behavior. They can detect changes in the
environment, allowing them to prepare for migration. On
the other hand, their predators will have to adapt to the
lack of available food resources.
Organizational Levels
 The ecosystem is arranged in various levels. The levels of
organization are organized from smallest to largest.
 The first level of organization pertains to an organism,
which refers to the individual species.
 The second level is the population which refers to a
group of organisms of the same species in the same
area. For instance, a population of green sea turtles in
Palawan is different from a population of green sea
turtles in Zambales. However, they can be under one
population if they are grouped as a population of green
sea turtles in the Philippines.
 The third level of organization is the
community which involves more than one
species or more than one population. For
instance, a live coral houses a community of
multiple aquatic organisms. It is important to
note that both population and community
levels only refer to biotic factors.
 The fourth level of organization is the
ecosystem which involves several
communities combined with abiotic factors.
For example, an area in Zambales hosts
different community of populations
interacting with several factors in the
environment.
 The last and final level is the biosphere which
encompasses all ecosystems. The biosphere
is essentially the surface of the Earth.
 Biodiversity
 Biodiversity refers to the variability of organisms in an
ecosystem. It has three types—species diversity, genetic
diversity, and ecological diversity.
 Species diversity refers to the abundance and number of
different species in the same area. For example, there is
an abundance of different bird species in a forest.
 Genetic diversity refers to the variation in the genes within
a particular species or within a population. A very good
example is the variability of eye color in humans.
 Ecological diversity refers to the diversity in an ecosystem,
habitat, and natural community. It shows how different
species interact with each other and with their
environment. It is the largest type of biodiversity. For
instance, the Amazon rainforest differs from the Congo
rainforest based on the different species found in both
ecosystems as well as abiotic factors such as the amount
of rainfall. They are both rainforests but have a lot of
differences which make each of them unique.
 The illustration below represents the global species
diversity of organisms.
 Energy Flow
 For an organism to survive, it must be able to
acquire energy from either the environment or
another organism.
 The food chain shows the feeding relationships of
organisms and depicts the energy flow in an
ecosystem. It starts in the organisms that are able
to produce chemical energy derived from the
light energy of sun. They are called producers
which are also known as autotrophs. The
organisms that feed on the producers are called
the consumers, also known as heterotrophs. The
consumers get their energy from the producers
that they consume.
 Consumers are further divided into herbivores that
only eat plants, carnivores that only eat other
animals, omnivores that can consume both plants
and animals, and decomposers that feed on
dead organic matter and bring the energy back
into the food web.
 The food web is the sum of food chains and shows
multiple pathways of energy flow in an
ecosystem. Just like in the food chain, the energy
enters through the producers or autotrophs.
 It is important to note that all parts of the food
chain, except for the sun, from the producers up
to all types of consumers, release energy as they
go about their daily activities.
The Principals of the Ecosystem
 Key Points
 An ecosystem is the interaction of biotic factors with their abiotic
environment.
 An organism’s behavior will determine how it can undergo adaptation.
 Biotic factors can be classified into producers (autotrophs) or consumers
(heterotrophs). These organisms can be mapped into an energy pyramid
which can show the transition of nutrients and energy as they go up.
 Energy flow within an ecosystem is represented by food webs.
Understanding how energy flows in an ecosystem is crucial to investigating
the quality of an ecosystem.

Earth & Life Science

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 What are the different principles that govern an ecosystem?

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