Environmental issues are currently among the most urgent and priority on the planet. Much attention is paid to how people use lake ecosystems and forests. Behind great science lies the terms that today, not only a schoolboy, but every self-respecting adult should know. We often hear “ecosystem pollution,” what does this mean? What are the parts of an ecosystem? The basics of discipline are already in elementary school. As an example, we can highlight the theme "Forest Ecosystem" (Grade 3).
Why did ecology emerge as a science?
This is a relatively young biological discipline, which arose as a result of the rapid development of the labor activity of mankind. Enhanced environmental management has led to disharmony between people and the world. The term "ecology", proposed by E. Haeckel in 1866, literally translates from Greek as "the science of home, habitat, shelter." In other words, this is the doctrine of the relationship of living organisms with their environment.
Ecology, like any other science, did not arise immediately. It took almost 70 years for the concept of "ecosystem" to appear.
Stages of the development of science and the first terms
In the XIX century, scientists accumulated knowledge, were engaged in the description of environmental processes, generalization and systematization of existing materials. The first terms of naki began to appear. For example, K. Mebius proposed the concept of "biocenosis." By it is meant the totality of living organisms that exist under identical conditions.
At the next stage of the development of science, the main measuring category is distinguished - the ecosystem (A. J. Tensley in 1935 and R. Linderman in 1942). Scientists studied the energy and trophic (nutrient) metabolic processes at the level of living and non-living components of the ecosystem.
At the third stage, the interaction of various ecosystems was analyzed. Then they were all combined into such a concept as the biosphere.
In recent years, science has mainly focused on the interaction of man with the environment, as well as on the destructive influence of anthropogenic factors.
What is an ecosystem?
This is a complex of living creatures with their habitat, which is functionally integrated into a single whole. Interdependence necessarily exists between these environmental components. Between living organisms and their environment there is a connection at the level of substances, energy and information.
The term was first proposed in 1935 by the British botanist A. Tensley. He also determined what parts the ecosystem consists of. Russian biologist V.N. Sukachev introduced the concept of "biogeocenosis" (1944), which is less voluminous in relation to the ecosystem. Options for biogeocenoses can be spruce, swamp. Examples of ecosystems are the ocean, the Volga River.
All living organisms can be influenced by biotic, abiotic and anthropogenic environmental factors. For instance:
- the frog ate a mosquito (biotic factor);
- a person gets wet in the rain (abiotic factor);
- people cut down the forest (anthropogenic factor).
Components
What are the parts of an ecosystem? There are two main components or parts of an ecosystem - a biotope and a biocenosis. A biotope is a place or territory in which a living community lives (biocenosis).
Not only the habitat itself (for example, soil or water), but also abiotic (non-living) factors are embedded in the concept of a biotope. These include climatic conditions, temperature, humidity, etc.
Structure
Any ecological system has a species structure. It is characterized by the presence of certain varieties of living organisms that can comfortably exist in this particular environment. For example, a stag beetle lives in mountainous terrain.
All types of living organisms distributed in an ecosystem are structured: horizontally or vertically. The vertical structure is represented by plant organisms, which, depending on the amount of solar energy they need, are arranged in tiers or floors.
Often, students in the tests are given the task to distribute floors in the forest ecosystem (Grade 3). The lower floor is a litter (basement), which is formed due to fallen leaves, needles, dead organisms, etc. The next tier (surface) is occupied by mosses, lichens, mushrooms. A little higher - grass, by the way, in some forests of this floor may not be. Next comes a tier of shrubs and young shoots of trees, behind it are small trees, and the highest floor is occupied by large, tall trees.
The horizontal structure is a mosaic arrangement of different types of organisms or microgroups depending on their food chains.
Important Features
Living organisms that inhabit a certain ecological system feed on each other in order to preserve their vital functions. Thus, food or trophic chains of the ecosystem are formed, which consist of links.
The first link includes producers or autotrophs. These are organisms that produce (produce), synthesize organic matter from inorganic. For example, a plant consumes carbon dioxide and releases oxygen and glucose, an organic compound, during photosynthesis.
The intermediate link is reducers (saprotrophs or destructive destroyers). These include organisms that are capable of degrading the remains of inanimate plants or animals. The result is the conversion of organic matter to inorganic. Reducers are microscopic fungi, bacteria.
The third link is represented by a group of consumers (consumers or heterotrophs), to which a person belongs. These living things cannot synthesize organic compounds from inorganic ones, therefore they are prepared in finished form from the environment. Consumers of the first order include herbivorous organisms (cow, hare, etc.), the next orders include carnivorous predators (tiger, lynx, lion), omnivores (bear, man).
Types of ecosystems
Any ecological system is open. It can also exist in an isolated form, its borders are blurred. Depending on the size, very small or microecological systems (human oral cavity), medium or mesoecological systems (forest edge, bay) and macroecological (ocean, Africa) are distinguished.
Depending on the mode of origin, spontaneously created or natural ecosystems and artificial or man-made are distinguished. Examples of ecosystems of natural education: sea, stream; artificial - a pond.
According to their spatial arrangement, water (puddle, ocean) and terrestrial (tundra, taiga, forest-steppe) ecological systems are distinguished. The first, in turn, are divided into marine and freshwater. Freshwater can be lotical (stream or river), lentic (reservoir, lake, pond) and wetlands (swamp).
Examples of ecosystems and their use by humans
Man can have an anthropogenic effect on the ecosystem. Any use of nature by people has an impact on the ecological system at the level of a region, country or planet.
As a result of overgrazing, irrational nature management and deforestation, two mesoecosystems (field, forest) are destroyed at once, and an anthropogenic desert forms in their place. Unfortunately, there are a lot of such examples of ecosystems.
Of great regional importance is how people use lake ecosystems. For example, during thermal pollution as a result of the discharge of heated water into the lake, it becomes boggy. Living creatures (fish, frogs, etc.) die, and blue-green algae actively propagate. The lakes are concentrated the main world supply of fresh water. Consequently, pollution of these reservoirs leads to disruption of not only regional, but also the global ecosystem of the world.