Explain energy flow in ecosystem class 11

Energy Flow The chemical energy of food is the main source of energy required by all living organisms. This energy is transmitted to different trophic levels along the food chain. This energy flow is based on two different laws of thermodynamics: • First law of thermodynamics, that states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, it can only change from one form to another. • Second law of thermodynamics, that states that as energy is transferred more and more of it is wasted. Energy Flow in Ecosystem The energy flow in the ecosystem is one of the major factors that support the survival of such a great number of organisms. For almost all organisms on earth, the primary source of energy is solar energy. It is amusing to find that we receive less than 50 per cent of the sun’s effective radiation on earth. When we say effective radiation, we mean the radiation, which can be used by plants to carry out photosynthesis. Also Read: Most of the sun’s radiation that falls on the earth is usually reflected back into space by the earth’s atmosphere. This effective radiation is termed as the Photosynthetically Active Radiation (PAR). Overall, we receive about 40 to 50 percent of the energy having Photosynthetically Active Radiation and only around 2-10 percent of it is used by plants for the process of photosynthesis. Thus, this percent of PAR supports the entire world as plants are the producers in the ecosystem and all the other organisms are either directly or in...

An ecosystem consists of plants, animals, and their physical environment. It is an area in which all these components interact with each other. An ecosystem has biotic components (living) which include plants, animals, and humans and it also contains abiotic components (non-living) such as soil, air, water, etc. An ecosystem contains various levels called trophic levels. There is a flow of energy from one trophic level to the other which sustains the ecosystem. In this article, we shall discuss the energy flow in an ecosystem in detail. What is Energy Flow? Energy flow in an ecosystem is defined as the movement or transfer of energy from one trophic level to another in an ecosystem. The energy that is passed is in the form of chemical energy. Energy flow is the phenomenon that is responsible to sustain life on this planet. All the biotic components in this ecosystem need energy for their survival. If the energy flow in an ecosystem is disturbed, then it leads to ecological imbalance. This energy flow occurs on the Earth through the biogeochemical cycle . Laws governing Energy Flow in an Ecosystem The energy flow in an ecosystem is governed by the first two laws of thermodynamics. These two laws are explained as follows: • First Law of thermodynamics: It states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but it keeps changing from one form to the other. Similarly in an ecosystem, the main source of energy is the sun, and this energy from the sun is transferred from on...

Well, our beautiful planet would definitely look barren and sad. We would also lose our main source of oxygen (that important stuff we breathe and rely on for metabolism). Carbon dioxide would no longer be cleaned out of the air, and as it trapped heat, Earth might warm up fast. And, perhaps most problematically, almost every living thing on Earth would eventually run out of food and die. Why would this be the case? In almost all ecosystems, photosynthesizers are the only "gateway" for energy to flow into food webs (networks of organisms that eat one another). If photosynthesizers were removed, the flow of energy would be cut off, and the other organisms would run out of food. In this way, photosynthesizers lay the foundation for every light-receiving ecosystem. Plants, algae, and photosynthetic bacteria act as producers. Producers are autotrophs, or "self-feeding" organisms, that make their own organic molecules from carbon dioxide. Photoautotrophs like plants use light energy to build sugars out of carbon dioxide. The energy is stored in the chemical bonds of the molecules, which are used as fuel and building material by the plant. The energy stored in organic molecules can be passed to other organisms in the ecosystem when those organisms eat plants (or eat other organisms that have previously eaten plants). In this way, all the consumers, or heterotrophs ("other-feeding" organisms) of an ecosystem, including herbivores, carnivores, and decomposers, rely on the ecosyste...

Image Giant African Land Snail Primary consumers, like the Giant African land snail (Achatina fulica), eat primary producers, like the plants the snail eats, taken energy from them. Like the primary producers, the primary consumers are in turn eaten, but by secondary consumers. Photograph by Cyril Ruoso/Minden Pictures Living things need energy to grow, breathe, reproduce, and move. Energy cannot be created from nothing, so it must be transferred through the ecosystem. The primary source of energy for almost every ecosystem on Earth is the sun. Primary producers use energy from the sun to produce their own food in the form of glucose, and then primary producers are eaten by primary consumers who are in turn eaten by secondary consumers, and so on, so that energy flows from one trophic level, or level of the food chain, to the next. The easiest way to demonstrate this energy flow is with a food chain. Each link in the chain represents a new trophic level, and the arrows show energy being passed along the chain. At the bottom of a food chain is always the primary producer. In terrestrial ecosystems most primary producers are plants, and in marine ecosystems, most primary producers are phytoplankton. Both produce most the nutrients and energy needed to support the rest of the food chain in their respective ecosystems. All the biomass generated by primary producers is called gross primary productivity. Net primary productivity is what is left over after the primary producer ha...

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Energy flow in ecosystem:- • We know that plants and photosynthetic bacteria (autotrophs), fix suns' radiant energy to make food from simple inorganic materials. • All organisms are dependent for their food on producers, either directly or indirectly. So we find unidirectional flow of energy from the sun to producers and then to consumers. • No energy that is trapped into an organism remains in it for ever. The energy trapped by the producer, hence, is either passed on to a consumer. • When the light energy falls on the green surfaces of plants, a part of it is transformed into chemical energy which is stored in various organic products in the plants. • When the herbivores consume plants as food and convert chemical energy accumulated in plant products into kinetic energy, degradation of energy will occur through its conversion into heat. When herbivores are consumed by carnivores of the first order(secondary consumers) further degradation will occur. Similarly, when primary carnivores are consumed by top carnivores, again energy will be degraded.