Ecosystem

ECOSYSTEM

Ecosystem:

An ecosystem includes all of the living things (plants, animals, and organisms) in a given area that interact with each other, as well as the non-living environments (weather, earth, sun, soil, climate, atmosphere) that surround the living things.

Given that an ecosystem is a community of animals, plants, and microorganisms, a garden makes up small part of an ecosystem. Some indoor growers refer to their indoor gardens as ecosystems, in which case they are referring to their growroom's environment and all of the things that affect their results.

Ecosystem Function:

'Ecosystem function' is the technical term used in the Framework to define the biological, geochemical and physical processes and components that take place or occur within an ecosystem. Or more simply put, ecosystem functions relate to the structural components of an ecosystem (e.g. vegetation, water, soil, atmosphere and biota) and how they interact with each other, within ecosystems and across  ecosystems. Sometimes, ecosystem functions are called ecological processes

Ecosystem Function Category

1.Regulating Functions

Maintenance of essential ecological processes and life support systems.

2.Supporting Functions

Providing habitat (suitable living space) for wild plant and animal species at local and regional scales.

3.Provisioning Functions

Provision of natural resources.

4.Cultural Functions

Providing life fulfilment opportunities and cognitive development through exposure to life processes and natural systems.

Categorised of Ecosystem Function

Regulating Functions:

Gas Regulation:

Relates to the influence of natural and managed systems in relation to biogeochemical processes including greenhouse gases, photo-chemical smog and volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

Climate Regulation:

Influence of land cover and biological mediated processes that regulate atmospheric processes and weather patterns which in turn create the microclimate in which different plants and animals (including humans) live and function.

Disturbance Regulation:

The capacity of the soil, regolith and vegetation to buffer the effects of wind, water and waves through water and energy storage capacity and surface resistance.

Water Regulation

The influence of land cover, topography, soils, hydrological conditions in the spatial and temporal distribution of water through atmosphere, soils, aquifers, rivers, lakes and wetlands.

Soil Retention

Minimising soil loss through having adequate vegetation cover, root biomass, retaining rocks and soil biota.

Nutrient Regulation

The role of ecosystems in the transport, storage and recycling of nutrients.

Waste Treatment and Assimilation

The extent to which ecosystems are able to transport, store and recycle certain excesses of organic and inorganic wastes through distribution, assimilation, transport and chemical recomposition.

Pollination

Pollination is the interaction between plants and (1) biotic vectors (e.g. insects, birds and mammals) and (2) abiotoic vectors (e.g. wind and water) in the movement of male gametes for plant production. Pollination and seed dispersal are linked.

Barrier Effect of Vegetation

Vegetation impedes the movement of airborne substances such as dust and aerosols (including agricultural chemicals and industrial and transport emissions), enhances air mixing and mitigates noise.

Supporting Functions:

Supporting Habitats

Preservation of natural and semi natural ecosystems as suitable living space for wild biotic communities and individual species. This function also includes the provision of suitable breeding, reproduction, nursery, refugia and corridors (connectivity) for species.

Soil Formation

Soil formation is the facilitation of soil formation processes. Soil formation processes include the chemical weathering of rocks and the transportation and accumulation of inorganic and organic matter.

Provisioning Functions:

Food

Biomass that sustains living organisms. Material that can be converted to provide energy and nutrition. Mostly initially derived from photosynthesis.

Raw Materials

Biomass that is used by species for any purpose other than food.

Water Supply

The role of ecosystems in providing water through sediment trapping, infiltration, dissolution, precipitation and diffusion.

Genetic Resources

Self maintaining diversity of organisms developed over evolutionary time (capable of continuing to change). Measurable at species, molecular and sub molecular levels.

Provision of Shade and Shelter

Relates to vegetation that ameliorates extremes in weather and climate at a local landscape scale. Shade or shelter is important for plants, animals and structures.

Pharmacological Resources

Natural materials that are or can be used by organisms to maintain, restore or improve health (natural patterns can be copied by humans for synthetic products).

Cultural Functions:

Landscape Opportunity

The extent and variety of natural features and landscapes.

Forest Ecosystem

A forest ecosystem describes the community of plants, animals, microbes and all other organisms in interaction with the chemical and physical features of their environment: specifically, a terrestrial environment dominated by trees growing in a closed canopy – a forest, in other words. The organisms involved in a forest ecosystem definition are interdependent on one another for survival and can be broadly classified according to their ecological role as producers, consumers and decomposers.

Producers

Let’s start our look at forest ecology where energy from the sun enters the system: at the producer level, made up of organisms that can manufacture their own energy from this solar input. Green plants conducting photosynthesis serve as the producers of a forest ecosystem, and in the tropical rainforest of the Amazon typically arrange themselves in four layers. The emergent layer includes huge trees towering 165 feet or more that are spaced far apart. Beneath these emergent trees lies the main canopy, composed of closely spaced trees generally 65 to 165 feet tall. They provide fruits, nectar and seeds to many creatures. The understory supports very few plants as it receives very little sunlight. Almost nothing grows on the forest floor as it is devoid of sunlight.

Primary Consumers

Primary consumers can’t manufacture their own energy and instead obtain it by eating green plants. We call such plant-eating animals herbivores. Herbivores may eat a wide variety of different plant materials depending on their physical adaptations and habitat preferences. In the Amazon, the capybara, a semi-aquatic rodent, forages on the forest floor and in wetlands for grasses and water plants. Other primary consumers, such as the red howler monkey, live in the rainforest canopy and feed on the leaves, flowers, fruits and nuts of trees.

Secondary & Tertiary Consumers

Secondary consumers feed on primary consumers (aka herbivores) to obtain the energy originally produced by green plants, while tertiary consumers feed on other secondary consumers. These meat-eating animals are known as carnivores, and many act both as secondary and tertiary consumers depending on the creature they’re preying on. The jaguar – the biggest mammalian carnivore in the Amazon – may prey on capybaras, a primary consumer, but also readily hunts such secondary consumers as caimans, in which case – as a carnivore eating a carnivore – it plays the role of a tertiary consumer.

Decomposers

The decomposers of the forest ecosystem break down dead plants and animals, returning the nutrients to the soil to be made usable by the producers. Apart from bacteria, ants and termites are important decomposers in the Amazon rainforest. Millipedes and earthworms also help to break down dead matter. The warm and moist climate of the Amazon is conducive for the decomposers to work at a rapid pace: Dead matter is broken down within six weeks.