2009 14 July Biology Ecology and Nutrient Cycle of the Ecosystem Post FIVE Haha, hey guys. This WILL BE MY final and official post. =) I decided to merge the conclusion post with this post, and my last post about the Fun and Interesting Facts would NOT BE AN official post. Also, I decided to remove the Nutrient Cycle part, as I thought it was irrelevant.
And lastly, starting my final post. ;D Many people have a misconception that the transfer of energy starts with plants, however, that is wrong. It actually starts with the Sun. The Sun is the primary source of energy production, the plants need it to photosynthesize, and hence, creating food. The first and foremost step that energy is produced, would happen within the primary producers, or as we more commonly know it as, plants. Next, the herbivores, or primary consumers, would consume the plants, and hence, the energy that the primary producer has created is transferred to the herbivore. Next, carnivores eat herbivores, or other carnivores, and from there, the energy in the herbivore is transferred to the carnivore (secondary consumers, tertiary consumers and quaternary consumers). Lastly, the detritivores, as I have mentioned before, consume the carcasses of dead animals and also consume our droppings. Before I continue, here's a simple figure.  The diagram above basically summarizes what I have said. However, notice that the diagram flows of trophic level to trophic level, and at all levels, waste is produced. Also, as the trophic level descends, the energy that is being passed on to the next consumer is decreased gradually. For example, the primary producers would have 100% energy, while the primary consumers would only get 95% and the secondary consumers would get only 85%. Also, what I have shown above, can be considered a skeleton for a food chain, and that is what I am going to go on to next. As I mentioned above, food chains basically show how each consumer gets their food. However, you might ask, what is the diference between a food chain and a food web? A food web is basically a larger scale of the food chain, it is actually two or more interconnected food chains. Do you know that in a food chain, the amount of herbivores are more than the amount of carnivores? That happens because as I have mentioned earlier, when a consumer eats, not all of the energy is passed to it. Hence, to make sure that it balances, there has to be more herbivores for the carnivores to feed on, and of course, more primary producers. Normally, there are mainly most primary producers, followed by herbivores, followed by carnivores, forming a pyramid shape. As you can see below.  Next, would be food webs, as I promised in Post Three, I would put up the different food webs of the ecosystems that I have mentioned.    Above are the Marine, Aquatic and Desert Food Chains and/or Webs respectively. Lastly, there is one important point to note about food chains and food webs, is that the population change of one group can cause the population change in others. One example would be that if the herbivores start to increase, there would be less primary producers, as there are more herbivores to eat them. When there are less primary producers than herbivores, it means that the herbivores would not have enough food to eat, and will start dying. This would cause the carnivores to not get eonugh food too, and start decreasing. However, when the carnivores start decreasing, the herbivores increases, and the cycle continues. That is why it is important to make sure that in a food chain/web, the structure is kept as an pyramid shape. This also shows that the organisms in the food web are interdependent! With that, I end my Biology Journal! During the course of this journal, it made me learn a lot of things. Here's the reflection, it will be on the report too. Of course, during the course of my research, there is no such thing as what is the ‘most’ surprising/interesting information I came across. The topic I chose, Ecology and the Food Cycle in the Ecosystem, was totally unfamiliar to me. Hence, everything that I had found out, had either amazed me, or I have learnt something from it. However, there was a few things that amazed me greatly, one would be the big word which I found out on the course of my research, biogeochemistry. It is a form of science, and people who study it are called biogeochemist. I was surprised that biogeochemists actually had a way to find out which organism is more important than the other, by ways like nutrient cycling or mass balance. Secondly, it would have to be the vast amount of ecosystems that I came across. Before the course of my research, I only thought that there were a few ecosystems, and hardly even knew what ecosystem meant. Of course, after this research, there are still a lot of things that I would like to find out more about ecosystems, I would really like to go to places like the desert, and actually have a look at the ecosystems there, and compare it with other ecosystems. From that, I meant that I would like to know the differences and similarities of the different ecosystems. Also, I would like to find out more about the human ecosystem. This is so as in many ecosystems, there are carnivores and herbivores. However, I believe that in the human ecosystem, carnivores and herbivores do not exists, although we eat meat and vegetables, I believe that that only constitutes a small part of our ecosystem. Of course, difficulties faced during research are inevitable. One of the major difficulties that I faced was finding for information. Many websites I went to only gave a brief view about ecosystems, the different types of ecosystem, and many times, they were written in very sophisticated terms, so I had to search the dictionaries and find out the meaning of some words, before I can fully understand the text, so that I can rephrase it. I thought that I did not take the wrong path of researching on ecosystems, it taught me a lot of things that I didn’t know, and I believe, many of us did not know too. Of course, I learnt a great lesson, and that would be to save the Earth. Through the course of the research, I have found out, how Earth was like before, and now, and will be. Our ecosystems are slowly dying one by one, and as ecosystems die, not only will the beautiful scenes of nature be gone, but also the animals and plants in it. This is all causing habitat degradation or fragmentation, and slowly, the Earth will fall apart piece by piece. I think that we ought to spare a thought for our future generations, it would be unfair for them if we get to see Earth, in its beautiful state, and for them, destroyed in ruins. With that, I end my reflection. 520 words After this research, I hope that it has urged you to find out more about our Earth, and help to conserve it! Just to remind you guys, Post Six (Fun and Interesting Facts) will not be an official post. The official Biology Journal ends here. Looking foward to Chemistry Journal! ;D Link One Link Two Link Three Link Four Link Five Glossary Trophic Level A group of organisms that make living in the same way. Gradually Slowly Interconnected Linked to each other in a certain way/manner. Interdependent Needs one another to function properly |
By Zhan Peng from 2-6 Catholic High School Class 2-6 One Golden Rule NOTHING |
