The document discusses the four spheres of Earth - lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. It explains that the lithosphere comprises the solid parts of Earth including rock and soil. The hydrosphere contains all of Earth's water. The atmosphere surrounds Earth and contains gases essential for life. The biosphere harbors all living things and depends on the other spheres. The document then covers the laws of conservation of matter and energy, and how energy and matter flow through ecosystems via food chains and webs between producers, consumers, and decomposers.
The document discusses the four spheres of Earth - lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. It explains that the lithosphere comprises the solid parts of Earth including rock and soil. The hydrosphere contains all of Earth's water. The atmosphere surrounds Earth and contains gases essential for life. The biosphere harbors all living things and depends on the other spheres. The document then covers the laws of conservation of matter and energy, and how energy and matter flow through ecosystems via food chains and webs between producers, consumers, and decomposers.
The document discusses the four spheres of Earth - lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. It explains that the lithosphere comprises the solid parts of Earth including rock and soil. The hydrosphere contains all of Earth's water. The atmosphere surrounds Earth and contains gases essential for life. The biosphere harbors all living things and depends on the other spheres. The document then covers the laws of conservation of matter and energy, and how energy and matter flow through ecosystems via food chains and webs between producers, consumers, and decomposers.
The document discusses the four spheres of Earth - lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, and biosphere. It explains that the lithosphere comprises the solid parts of Earth including rock and soil. The hydrosphere contains all of Earth's water. The atmosphere surrounds Earth and contains gases essential for life. The biosphere harbors all living things and depends on the other spheres. The document then covers the laws of conservation of matter and energy, and how energy and matter flow through ecosystems via food chains and webs between producers, consumers, and decomposers.
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Earth as a System
Learning Objectives:
1. Differentiate the spheres of the Earth
2. Appreciate the check and balance systems of nature 3. Infer how much energy is transferred from one trophic level to another 4. Describe how matter and energy flow through the ecosystems using food chains and food webs Scope of the Environment Lithosphere - geosphere - composed of all the planet’s rock, soil, and minerals - includes not only the solid part, but also the molten rock in the Earth's interior Hydrosphere - contains all of Earth's water in all of its phases - solid, liquid, and gaseous. - composed of Earth's saltwater, freshwater, glaciers, the permafrost, and the moisture in the atmosphere. Atmosphere - the layer of gases that surround Earth - absorb solar radiation that is harmful to living organisms and reflect it back to outer space - contains several gases that are essential to life like carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen. Biosphere - harbors all the living things in the planet - This sphere is very much dependent on all the other three systems - Organisms need the gases from the atmosphere, the water from the hydrosphere, and the nutrients and minerals from the lithosphere. Matter, Energy and Life Conservation of Matter and Energy Law of Conservation of Matter
• Matter is neither created nor destroyed.
• It is recycled and used as materials to be converted to another form. First Law of Thermodynamics
• Energy is likewise conserved.
• It is neither created nor destroyed. • It is only converted from one form to another. Second Law of Thermodynamics • It simply states that in a system that undergoes successive energy transfer or transformation, some usable energy is lost in each step. • Think of it as an energy "cost" for the transformation process. Thus, with every energy transfer process, you end up with less usable energy than when you started. Energy Flow Through Ecosystems • A species refers to organisms of the same kind that are able to produce fertile offsprings. • A group of species living together in one habitat is called a population. • Populations of different organisms interacting in this particular habitat is referred to as a biological community, or simply, community. • Ecosystems, or ecological systems, consist of a biological community interacting with its physical environment. It is composed of both the living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) things in a particular area. Energy Flow Through Ecosystems • The trophic levels express an organism's feeding status in an ecosystem. • Energy from the sun is absorbed by producers, also called autotrophs, organisms that are capable of creating their own food. These producers build their biological matter from the inorganic nutrients in the soil. Organisms that produce food from light are called photoautotrophs while those that utilize chemical compounds when light is absent are called chemoautotrophs. Energy Flow Through Ecosystems • Consumers feed on these producers, absorbing both their matter and energy. • When these organisms die, they are broken down by decomposers and their organic matter are deposited in their habitat as part of the inorganic nutrient pool, waiting to be utilized again by the producers. • Consumers and decomposers are classified as heterotrophs as they need to consume the organic matter of other organisms to survive. Energy Flow Through Ecosystems Food Chain and Food Web • A food chain represents a single series of process of linked feeding relationships. It graphically shows what eats what in an ecosystem. • A food web is basically an interconnection of different food chains. • Primary consumers are herbivores or plant eaters. • The secondary consumers feed on the primary consumers. They can be carnivores (meat eaters) or omnivores (plant and meat eaters). • The tertiary, or quaternary, consumers are usually the top carnivore in an ecosystem. The top carnivores are also called apex predators. • Decomposers break down the organic matter from all these organisms when they die and return these to the soil to be reused as inorganic nutrients for the producers. Common examples of decomposers are fungi and bacteria. Thank you!!!