Write a short note on ecosystems. Illustrate your answer with the help of an example.
Answers
A complex relationship between all the living and nonliving things (plants, animals, organisms, sun, water, climate etc)interact with each other is known as ‘An Ecosystem’. Ecosystems are the foundation of ‘Biosphere’ and maintain the natural balance of the earth.
For example, let’s take the relationship between sheep and lion in the ecosystem; for its survival, the lion eats the sheep. And each relationship like this has an effect on other creatures and plants living in the same area.
Hence, if the lion eats more sheep, it has an effect on the plants too; they begin to flourish; since there aren’t many sheep to eat the plants.
Each organism in the ecosystem plays an important role, so anytime a ‘foreign’ factor is put in the ecosystem, it poses a major threat to the ecosystem. This happens because the foreign factor can deform the natural balance of the ecosystem and harm it potentially.
This foreign factor could be anything ranging from rising temperature to the tsunami. Not just the foreign factor but man-made can also destroy the ecosystem.
COMPONENTS OF THE ECOSYSTEM
The components of an ecosystem are divided into abiotic components, that include all nonliving components such as minerals, climate, soil, water, sunlight and biotic components, that include all the living components. These components together make up for the flow of energy in the ecosystem and the nutrient cycle in the ecosystem.
The gleaming energy from the sun is the basic source of energy in all the ecosystems. The autotrophs (self-sustaining organisms) absorb this energy and produce photosynthesis where they can use this energy to convert CO2 and H2O into simple carbohydrates. The autotrophs store energy in these carbohydrates, which they then use to produce more complex and organic products like lipids, proteins, and starches that help the organism to survive.
These autotrophs are the producers of the ecosystem.
Organic compounds produced by autotrophs help in the survival of the heterotrophic organisms. And heterotrophs are the consumers of the ecosystem since they’re incapable of making their own food. All organisms like bacteria, fungi or animals are Heterotroph