ENV100H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: Arthur Tansley, Ecosystem Ecology, Primary Production

• School: UTSG
• Department: School of Environment
• Course: ENV100H1
• Professor: Barbara Murck

Document Summary

Ecosystems are systems of interacting biotic and abiotic components. Organisms die and decay nutrients stay in the system. Ecology - scientific discipline that deals with abundance and distribution of organisms, the interactions among them and their interactions with the abiotic environment. Ecosystem ecology - study of energy and material flows among living and nonliving components of systems: ecosystem ecologists examine structure (individual components and relationships) and functional processes of ecosystems. Energy is converted to biomass through primary productivity. Biomass - organic material of which living organisms are formed. Gross primary production (gpp) - conversion of solar energy to energy of chemical bonds in sugars by autotrophs: autotrophs use a portion of production to power own metabolism by respiration. Secondary production - total biomass that heterotrophs generate by consuming autotrophs. Productivity - rate at which production occurs: ecosystems whose plants convert solar energy to biomass quickly have high npp. High wetlands, tropical forests, coral reefs; low deserts, tundra, open ocean.