Transcript for:
Biomes, Biospheres, and Ecosystems

[Music] [Music] welcome life science learners to another installment i'm you again and thank you for joining me today in our lesson today we're going to be focusing on biomes biospheres and ecosystems the context of this is important it's important for us to be able to understand what is the biosphere and then we're going to link that to looking at biomes in the context of south africa and the variety of biomes we have and then finally we're going to look at ecosystems let's get straight into unpacking some important terminology as we get into this lesson we can look at some terms and then we're going to look at the components of biospheres right so let's try and understand the concept of a biosphere the word bio refers to living organisms and a sphere refers to something that's a globe so in terms of the earth we know that the biosphere is that part of the earth's surface where humans and other organisms are able to live so guys when we talk of the earth we know that the earth supports a variety of different organisms life forms the earth is regarded as a sphere so the bio would refer to the living organisms so we understand the context of interaction of organisms in the environment we would need to unpack where do these living organisms exist and how do they interact with the environment so let's unpack that by looking at what it is made up of so the biosphere is made up of the hydrosphere the lithosphere and the atmosphere so these three components form the important parts of the the biosphere we also know that the biosphere extends to about seven to eight thousand meters above the sea and around six to eight thousand meters below the sea level so if we just looked at the context of where we are in the context of when we stand on the surface of the earth remember that as we go up further into the atmosphere there's a large variety of organisms that live there likewise we can go into the surface of the earth into the soil into the deepest parts of the ocean these are habitats that support life forms so we refer to them as the biosphere both in terms of the atmosphere as well as the aquatic parts of the environment the components of the biosphere as i mentioned can be divided into the atmosphere the hydrosphere and the lithosphere let's take each one of these and get the context to what they mean the biosphere consists of as you would look at this image the illustrations of the three parts so in terms of the living components they interact with the atmosphere which is predominantly the air that we have in our environment as well as the earth which is the lithosphere and this refers to the soil the rocks that we have life forms living on supported by as well as the aquatic parts or the water in our oceans rivers seas and lakes and so these three components collectively contribute to the existence of life on earth when we look at the atmosphere it's important to understand what the atmosphere is made up of what is the atmosphere made up of predominantly gases let's try and unpack what these gases are so surrounding the earth we have a layer of air called the atmosphere the gases that surround the earth are mainly made up of nitrogen which is about 71 oxygen which is about 21 percent with a small amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere we know that water vapor also plays an important part of our atmosphere and that concentration may vary we also have a buildup of other gases that make a very small percentage of the gases in our atmosphere why is the atmosphere important the oxygen the gases that are vital are important to supporting important processes like cellular respiration photosynthesis so we will look at the impact that that has on living organisms so processes such as respiration photosynthesis and the filtering of sunlight help to protect living organisms from the harmful solar radiation it's important that we recognize that the layer of atmosphere is also an important filter to the harmful uv radiation that we experience on earth so that layer is crucial in terms of helping with the absorption of harmful radiation as well as maintaining the global temperature on on the surface of the earth and we've mentioned the term global warming and the natural effect of that on the earth and so these gases play an important role in maintaining the temperature on the surface of the earth so if we unpack that by looking at the composition of gases in the atmosphere we can see that nitrogen forms a significant component of the gases with oxygen being the second largest component making up 21 we know that carbon dioxide is a very small amount that is steadily increasing and will and that's due to human activity with the other gases forming a very small percentage of that so guys the atmosphere is made up of different gases and these gases are crucial to us being able to survive on earth and we know that through human activity there's a concern around the level of carbon dioxide increasing and so that's something that we will unpack in another lesson when we look at the atmosphere it's important to recognize that the atmosphere is made up of different layers and this is an extension to our understanding of the atmosphere so we have a layer called the troposphere which is then surrounded by the stratosphere which in turn is enclosed on the external surface by the mesosphere and then right on the outside we have the thermosphere so these various levels are the levels of gases that make up the atmosphere so let's try and understand what the troposphere is so the troposphere is the layer closest to the surface of the earth and we see that that's the layer that we have access to immediately it extends to about 10 kilometers above the sea level humans and plants live in this layer so we have all forms of life interacting in this so when we look at planes and birds they also fly in this layer as the layer goes higher the air becomes thinner and often we experience this as a concept in people that are involved in climbing of mountains as the altitude increases or the height above sea level we find that the air becomes thinner and essentially the concept of thinner refers to the depletion of the level of oxygen in the atmosphere so that's the concept of air becoming thinner the other layers include the stratosphere which is about 50 kilometers above sea level and we look at that that's significantly higher it's about 50 kilometers above sea level if we then look at the mesosphere which is again measured about 85 kilometers above sea level so if we were to move 85 kilometers above sea level that's significantly high we will move into an area called the mesosphere and then finally we have the thermosphere which is about 500 kilometers above sea level and then surrounding the atmosphere we'll get into the outer space called the exosphere so these are essentially the layers in the atmosphere okay the hydrosphere the word hydro refers to water so this would refer to the layers that are involved with supporting water so and life forms in water so this consists of water on earth and this would include the oceans which are both the salt water as well as your estuaries as well as rivers and lakes which are your fresh water systems your fresh water makes up three percent of your hydrosphere while the remaining 97 percent is made up of your oceans and as we described discuss this point it's important that we recognize that our freshwater ecosystems are only three percent and so if we were to translate that in terms of the access of drinking water to humans it means that we have significantly a small percentage of that water that is accessible and within that three percent we often find that fresh water system a very small percentage of that is actually accessible to humans so this should help us to get the context of why it's important for us to be able to conserve our fresh water systems because a majority of that is made up of your salt or your marine water it's important to recognize that the hydrosphere provides the water needed by all living organisms to survive it is the habitat of many aquatic organisms such as your microscopic plankton fish and your large organisms such as sharks and whales so the diversity of life forms that exist on earth a large percentage of that is based in your aquatic habitats so the hydrosphere forms an important part of the the diversity of life on earth we then go on to the third component which is called the lithosphere and if we look at litho refers to the soil so this is the outer crust of the earth it is made up of the rock and soil only a thin layer of the earth's crust namely the topsoil supports plant life so if we were to look at the surface of earth we have a very thin layer on the outside which is made up of the topsail that supports the plant life below that we have different layers of rock and sand that make up the inner crust of the earth so this it's as a source of ions which is the soil and minerals which living organisms need the soil is also a habitat for many microscopic invertebrates and larger vertebrates so the lithosphere forms an important component of our environment in which microorganisms your invertebrates survive and so if we think about that it supports the development and growth of plant so this outermost top layer of soil is crucial to sustaining the other forms of life because that is where most of your autotrophs or your producers are found and so these rely on the nutrients in the soil to be able to grow and be able to carry out vital processes like photosynthesis so if we were to look at the three components collectively these are crucial collectively to the existence of life forms on earth so we need the water we need the gases we need the oxygen as well as we need the nutrients from the soil to be able to support the diversity of life forms on earth again the biosphere is where life forms are covered and it's in the larger area to make it easier to study ecologists have divided the biosphere into smaller and smaller pieces and these are called biomes and then further biomes are broken up into ecosystems ecosystems are broken up into communities communities into populations and then individual organisms so this is a simple illustration to show you that the complexity of life forms so individuals put together form populations these populations collectively interact with each other so when different populations of organisms interact with each other we refer to that as a community communities in turn interact with each other and the non-living components in the area and we refer to that as the ecosystems ecosystems may be found collectively in different areas characterized by the type of environment the temperature and we refer to this collectively as ecosystems interacting with each other as biomes and then if we take several biomes and we put them together and we see how they interact with each other we get to the concept of a biosphere so those are the several components in the biosphere if we were to break that down into its smaller building components so we've looked at the biosphere and ultimately it's important that we recognize that the components of the biosphere are from the smallest individual to the most complex systems which we refer to as the biosphere so guys we've looked at the components of the biosphere which were the three components the lithosphere atmosphere and the hydrosphere and we've unpacked what a biosphere is made up of right down to the simple organism that we refer to as individuals in a population you guys have been a good audience you deserve a little break have a short stretch break comfort break and i'll see you back in a little while [Music] welcome back life science learners to our next segment as a recap of what we've just looked at we've looked at the biosphere and we've unpacked the different components of the biosphere in this segment we're going to focus on biomes and specifically what is the biome and the different biomes in the context of south africa it's important that we recognize that as we start breaking our biospheres we know that a biosphere contains many biomes let's try and understand the context of our biome and its importance and how do we recognize different biomes in south africa so it's important before we get into that to understand that there is an interconnection between the spheres of life so what do i mean by that so we saw that life exists in the atmosphere we know that life forms exist in the lithosphere as well as life forms existing in the hydrosphere all of these are interdependent and often depend on each other let's try and understand that by looking at the next slide so life will exist where energy from the sun can interact with the lithosphere atmosphere and the hydrosphere so if we were to try and understand the context of this so if we were to take just the atmosphere would that be able to support life the answer is probably yes if we were to look at just the hydrosphere can that support life definitely however we've got to try and understand the context of all three components being able to collectively support life we know that the sun is our primary source of energy and that's the energy that most living organisms can access either directly or indirectly let's try and understand what does this mean in terms of the air so we know that the air on earth supports processes like respiration and photosynthesis we know that those essential processes are crucial to sustaining the production or the conversion of energy from the sun into chemical energy that chemical energy is often used by organisms that exist on earth either on the surface of the earth or in the lithosphere those organisms in turn rely on the hydrosphere access to water access to aquatic organisms and in turn these also produce energy because we know that most of our phytoplankton that live in water are able to access the energy from the sun and produce what we call glucose and that energy is available to our aquatic organisms so it's important that we understand that there's an interconnection between different components of the biosphere so life on earth is supported by a thin zone of soil and air and water the living organisms are found mostly in the upper layers of the hydrosphere lithosphere and the lower layers of the atmosphere so essentially as we noted earlier on is that although the layers of the atmosphere are several kilometers long it is probably the only the closest layer to the surface of the earth that supports life forms likewise when we look at the lithosphere it is only the top layer that is able to provide and sustain life and that contains all the nutrients and the fertile soil in which most of our plants and some of our invertebrates are able to access energy and likewise if we talk of our aquatic ecosystems we divert to all the the components of the hydrosphere we know that the oceans are deep but often it is the the most shallow parts of the ocean that supports the ability to have diverse forms of life because that is where light is able to penetrate and organisms such as phytoplankton and zooplankton that sustain other life forms so that is the interconnectedness that we need to look at so life on earth is linked to each other and the three spheres there are two main components in a biosphere that we need to recognize the biotic and the abiotic components and we will unpack that in a little while so when we look at the form of life's existing on earth there's an interconnectedness between the three components but there's also an interdependence between the living components and the non-living components which we refer to as the abiotic factors so in this segment let's try and unpack what is a biome we know that in the context of south africa we are having a diversity of life forms that are found in different areas and these areas are biomes that are characterized by the typical type of plants and organisms that are found in that area so a biome is a large area with a specific climate and these would be influenced by the abiotic components so the non-living components things such as climate temperature altitude rainfall so these are your abiotic components biomes contain specific kinds of plants and animals generally we say that a biome is characterized by the types of plants and animals found in that area so these are typically found so for example if you look at your savannas those have a typical distribution of plants and animals in them a biome is made up of several ecosystems and as we discussed early on that we can unpack a biome into different ecosystems and ecosystems are unique in that they form these little habitats that are identified by the type of organisms that interact with each other and their environment biomes can either be terrestrial which are the ones found on land or aquatic the ones found in the water our terrestrial biomes are named after the dominant vegetation in that area so when we unpack our terrestrial biomes we would need to realize that biomes are often characterized by the type of typical vegetation found in that specific area so in the context of south africa we have different biomes and these terrestrial biomes are either broken up into the seven different areas or our aquatic biomes are also broken up into three or four different areas let's try and unpack what the terrestrial biomes are as i quickly move to changing the color of my pen this map indicates the distribution of our seven biomes it's important that we recognize that each biome is characterized by the type of plants and animals found in that area south africa is home to seven distinct terrestrial bombs if we look at it our savannah biomes which are coated in red form predominantly the largest biomes in south africa this predominant red color indicates the distribution of that so if you look at it it's predominantly in the northern cape namibia if we go through along here the northern parts of haoteng and along the east the east coast of south africa the next spine that we look at are your grasslands and so this is indicated by the key which is yellow and so as we know that these are the areas that are typically found along this would be tang and the southern parts of the northern parts of the kwazulu-natal and then your bronfentine in that area there other biomes include the namakuru which we see in this brown shade here and these are characterized by the dry arid conditions found in there further if we move towards the west coast here we find that this is your succulent crew and these contain plants that are typically adapted to those cold conditions and dry arid conditions unique to south africa is the cape vein boss which we find along the south western areas and these are typical to plants that are endemic to south africa if we go further into this we can see that we've got scatters of these purple areas called the thicket bombs and these are areas along the eastern coast of south africa and then we also need to recognize that we've got forest biomes along the eastern coast of south africa so guys these are the seven different biomes that we have that are terrestrial we also need to refer to the aquatic biomes that we have and these aquatic biomes are areas that are made up of either your freshwater biomes or your marine bombs and in south africa we have a diversity of dams and lakes rivers and wetlands that make up the fresh water ecosystems as we have fresh water ecosystems we also need to recognize that we have marine ecosystems and these are ecosystems that contain water that is salty so they have different percentages of concentrations of salt as well as different terrains and areas your sandy shores typically found in areas where the beaches are filled with sand you have rocky shores which form a different type of biome where the sea or the shore is filled with rocks you've got coral reefs which are found along the saint lucia which is unique to south africa and it's only one predominant area you've got your mangrove swamps which are areas where rivers meet and into seas and then estuaries which are seen as our important wetlands of south africa and we have the open oceans and the open seas which form predominantly a larger part of the bio [Music] welcome back life sciences learners to the next segment in our previous segments we've looked at the hydrosphere lithosphere and the atmosphere as components of the biosphere we've also spent some time looking at what biomes were and the different biomes in south africa we discussed the aquatic biomes as well as the terrestrial bonds in our next segment we're going to be looking at ecosystems it's important that we recognize that the biosphere is gradually broken up into smaller components and that's essentially what we're looking at now so we're going to look at the ecosystems and unpack what is an ecosystem what are the components of an ecosystem and how that supports the complexities of different forms of life it's important that we understand what an ecosystem is eco refers to ecology and systems refer to the interactions of organisms an ecosystem is a specific area in a biome with characteristic vegetation in which there is a close interaction between the abotik and the biotic components so as i mentioned so let's try and understand what the ecosystem is so within a biome we find that there are several different ecosystems each ecosystem is characterized by several factors it's characterized by the type of characteristic vegetation that is found along with the type of organisms that are there so your bio biomes are broad within biomes we find ecosystems and within ecosystems we find that there are interactions between organisms as well as the antibiotic factors so abiotic factors are those factors in the environment that are said to be the non-living so which include things like the temperature the soil the ph the amount of light altitude we're going to unpack those in a little while ecosystems may vary in size as well as complexity an example of this it could be a freshwater pond it could be a fallen rotten log a rock pool so each of these form little areas where you have a unique diversity of interactions between the living and the non-living components yes guys a rotting log can be an ecosystem in that you would find bacteria you would find many invertebrates you would find some fungi that growing in there so these are again a complexity of unique distribution of life forms in a specific area the organisms in an ecosystem display adaptations for survival in that unique environment it's also important that we recognize that in a biome you have organisms adapted to living in those specific conditions and that is what defines a biome it's the ecosystems that have unique adaptations within them there's a sustainable flow of energy through an ecosystem and the recycling of nutrients so we need to understand that each of your ecosystems produce and recycle energy from that environment and collectively there's an interconnectedness between ecosystems and we see that there's a flow of energy between ecosystems and that is what we refer to as the complexities of ecosystems so here's an image that shows you both as i mentioned you've got your you've got a log and within that log you've got specific interactions you've got the aquatic parts of the environment you've got the terrestrial parts of the environment and all of these collectively interact with each other so an ecosystem is a smaller component which has a variety of organisms interacting with them as we look at ecosystems it's important that we understand that there's an organization within ecosystems and that organization is often linked to how the energy and the nutrients flow we where to look at this we know that all forms of life on earth really rely on the radiation from the from the sun so we have plants and we have aquatic organisms that are able to use that that that chemical the solar energy to produce chemical energy those producers in turn produce energy for other consumers and so we have these consumers that feed off them we've got secondary consumers that feed off so we're seeing a complexity of energy flowing as we're seeing there's a complexity of nutrients flowing and so there's energy that is produced there's energy that is lost and so that cycle of energy being converted and utilized between individuals in an ecosystem refers to the organization of an ecosystem remember that energy flows in an ecosystem along with that there's an exchange of nutrients between the living and the non-living components so as we started off we mentioned that those were the biotic components let's try and understand what the abiotic components of an ecosystem are as i mentioned that the abiotic components are the non-living components and these can be broadly classified into the climatic conditions the adaptic conditions and the physiographic conditions what do i mean by that let's try and unpack that so when we talk of our climatic factors we refer to those factors that are aspects of the climate so the light and the availability of light the temperature of the environment the type of water and the amount of water so it could be fresh water marine the composition of atmospheric gases as well as the velocity of wind in those areas so these are the climatic factors and all of these factors collectively can influence the diversity of life forms in an ecosystem when we talk of the adaphic factors we refer to those factors that are in the soil and all its properties so the type of soil we will discuss that as in different types of soil support life forms the water content in the soil its ability to be able to hold water along with the air available in the soil for the growth of plants as well as the sustaining of other life forms the minerals in the soil as well as the ph of the soil so these are the adaptic factors or factors that are as a result of the type of soil and the amount of nutrients and ph of the soil these in turn also influence the living forms and finally we have the physiographic factors and the physiographic factors actually refer to the layer of the land so when we talk about the lay of the land we refer to the the the type of land its situation in terms of geographically so this is in context of the aspect and aspect would be the amount of light that the area receives the slope in terms of the terrain so you find that it's mountainous you have slopes that are facing the sun or away from the sun so that refers to the slopes and we also refer to the altitude and the altitude is the height of an area above sea level and collectively all of these physiographic factors can influence the complexity of life in an ecosystem so these factors have an effect on the distribution of the numbers and the types of organisms found in an area so guys as we wrap this segment up we've looked at ecosystems and the components of the biotic and the abiotic factors you deserve a short break have a little comfort break and i'll see you back in a little while [Music] welcome back life science learners to our final segment for today in our segment today we're going to focus on the the biotic factors yes we've just looked at the abiotic factors in the context of the biosphere it's important that we recognize that a biosphere has different components and today in this segment we're focusing on the ecosystem biology components refer to the living components of an ecosystem these would include the different organisms whether they are the herbivores the producers the autotrophs those are the living organisms however it's important that we recognize that as we've just discussed the abiotic factors that the living components interact with each other and their non-living components so in this segment we're going to focus on the biotic components in an ecosystem so as i mentioned the biotic components are the living components of an ecosystem let's start off with right at the bottom of a food chain we have producers and these producers are those organisms that are able to produce energy for an ecosystem and these consist of plants as well as your microscopic phytoplankton and zooplankton that that live in water so we refer to these as your producers producers are those individuals that are able to convert energy from the sun into chemical energy and they form an important component of an ecosystem so plants that can photosynthesize make their own food we know that we have microorganisms such as zooplankton that are able to live in water and utilize energy from the sun and produce energy and those are again the primary source of energy for many other consumers in a food chain so those are your producers we also refer to producers as your autotrophs so the term autotrophs refers to organisms that are capable of being able to synthesize food by themselves or produce food and that's predominantly to the process called photosynthesis we also know that there are certain bacteria and other microorganisms that are autotrophic essentially being able to produce energy of food by themselves so they rely on the energy from the sun and they carry out processes such as photosynthesis and they convert that radiant energy into chemical energy and refer to those organisms as your autotrophs the next component of a biotic component would be the consumers the word consume refers to be able to use so organisms that cannot manufacture their own food and get their energy from the food that they eat are called consumers these include bacteria fungi protist and your animals so guys your consumers often are those individuals that rely on your autotrophs so they feed off your autotrophs so they cannot carry out processes like photosynthesis so they rely on your producers your primary producers for the energy so they consume other organisms and hence the term consumers we also use the term heterotrophs so we discussed that your primary producers were called autotrophs or autotrophic now we can use the term heterotrophs to describe other organisms that are consuming individuals so your heterotrophs refer to individuals in an environment that cannot manufacture their own food but rely on other producers for energy so again the term heterotrophic consumers are named according to what they eat so we know that in a food chain you get in individuals that are found right at the bottom and refer to them as your primary consumers so these are your individuals that are right at the bottom of the food chain that are consuming plants directly so we refer to them as your primary consumers and these are generally your herbivores that eat plants amongst your primary consumers you have different types of herbivores depending on what they eat so you have your browsers you have your grazers that feed on different parts of the ecosystem so again your primary consumers are your herbivores and these again as i mentioned can vary according to which parts of the ecosystem they consuming so this illustration shows you here we've got the buffalo and we've got some springbok here that are consuming different parts of the grass okay we then move on to a second consumer which is called the secondary consumers and we know that south africa is a country that's rich rich in diversity and we find a large degree of secondary consumers that feed on our primary consumers so your herbivores so these would be consumers that are generally feeding on your primary producers or consumers these include your larger carnivores which are your meat eating these are often predatory or individuals and they would have to hunt kill and eat their prey so your carnivores include your lions your leopards your cheetahs your wild dogs and so these are complex individuals that live in societies where the existence depends on how how well they access food so your carnivores are generally large organisms that live together in larger organizations that hunt together or track prey together so we often refer to them as predatory consumers that kill and eat their prey we also know that in addition to your consumers we have scavengers now scavengers are those individuals that feed off the remains of dead animals so one would question what's the significance of this guys remember that when we have your consumers such as lions or your larger predators that feed off the carcasses there's often remains of those carcasses that are left so this would indicate to you this is a vulture an african vulture which is obviously a scavenger that feeds off the remains of the kills so these are important recyclers of the energy in an ecosystem so the scavengers ensure that they consume the remains of dead animals so they will ensure that the rotting decomposing meat that is left out in the savannas and the grasslands are being consumed by these so these often are referred to as the guys that do the cleaning up an important part of the ecosystem where scavengers are able to remove the and utilize the nutrients from dead organic individuals we also get those individuals that are called omni wars and so yes guys we are omnivores as well because we have a diet that consists of both plant material and animal material some of you may agree with me some may disagree because i know that some of you prefer to have predominantly a meat diet and so you'd regard yourself as a carnivore however our natural diet is that we omnivores this means that these individuals consume both plant and animal matter and so they depend on what is eaten and can either be a primary consumer or a secondary consumer so your omnivores are those that consume plant material and your animal material and so these can either be your primary consumers which are right at the bottom of the food chain or they could be secondary consumers where they actually consume other predators or other prey and they as well are seen to be able to consume a plant diet guys it's important that we understand what decomposes are decomposers also form an important part of the biotic component when we refer to decomposers we refer to those individuals that are able to consume parts of the environment and recycle the nutrients back into the environment decomposers a critical part of any ecosystem they are the ones that are able to utilize the organic remains and convert them back into nutrients that return into the nutrient cycle so decomposers such as bacteria and fungi can break down plants and animals and return the nutrients into the soil this is an image of a mushroom or a fungi and often these are referred to as saprophyte fights so we refer to them as saprophytes and your saprophytes are those individuals that feed on organic matter so they do not photosynthesize as you would see that mushrooms do not have the ability to photosynthesize they lack chlorophyll and so they live off dead organic matter so often you will find mushrooms growing on dead decomposing wood and so if you do feel the wood it often becomes much soft because these produce enzymes that that secrete these enzymes into the organic matter and they digest that matter and they able with their mycelium and their threads absorb the nutrients to sustain the growth of these fungi they produce spores that spread easily and they are able to then utilize the energy from dead organic matter which includes animals and plants we also know that bacteria play a significant role in the decomposition so the bacteria are able to break down dead organic matter both plant and animal matter so guys as we looked at biotic components we also need to understand the interaction of these biotic components and often the best way to look at interactions of biology components is to study them through food chains and food waves so what is a food chain remember that a food chain shows you the flow of energy in an ecosystem food chains often illustrate where energy is produced and how that is consumed from one trophic level to the next we also know that food chains exist in interconnected with other food chains so as we would see on the board currently we've got a we've got several food chains that are connected to each other and so we're illustrating that interaction with food webs at this point in time we must recognize that food chains and food webs are also independent on the abiotic factors so let's try and understand how energy flows in a food chain through ecosystems so as we started off we mentioned that we have our producers or your autotrophs that are the individuals that are able to convert energy from the sun or radiant energy into chemical energy these form the primary producers they in turn are consumed by your primary consumers and you would see that the size of these consumers may vary so you've got them from extremely small your rodents your rabbits to larger herbivores and these herbivores essentially then are consumed by what we refer to as your secondary consumers so these were your primary consumers and here you find we've got our secondary consumers and these in turn feed on your primary consumers remember that in a food chain the arrows indicate the direction of energy flow so energy constantly flows from one trophic level or from one level to the next and so as we move to your secondary trophic level we see that the size of these individuals increase and so the amount of energy required by these individuals also increases from your secondary trophic level we move on to your tertiary consumers and these are generally your larger predators and these are your lions or your apex predators that feed off them we mentioned the terms omnivores and carnivores so we often tend to find your carnivores here at the third trophic level we find often your omnivores in this area here which they would be able to consume both your plant material and your animal material so this is a complex illustration of the interaction of the biotic components let's go back to a slide that we discussed earlier on so we looked at this side as an illustration of the organization within a food chain remember that within an ecosystem remember that that illustration shows you the flow of energy and the energy is an important part of any ecosystem where it flows and along with that the energy provides nutrients and so in the complexity of any food chain we find that energy in the form of nutrients flows from your producers to your consumers to your tertiary consumers and these in turn will then decompose and the energy returns back into the soil so guys when we look at ecosystems it's important that we recognize that ecosystems are made up of different layers of biotic components and those biotic components allow for energy to transfer from one trophic level to the next and we refer to that as the organization within an ecosystem it's important that we recognize that energy flows from one trophic level to the next so as we wrap the segment up it's important that we recognize that energy in an ecosystem flows so guys we've looked at biomes we've looked at ecosystems and in that we've looked at the biotic and the abiotic components as we try and unpack what we've looked at remember that the abiotic components are the non-living components we discussed the climatic factors the physiographic factors and the edifice factors to remind you that the editing factors are the factors in the soil your climatic factors are factors such as temperature wind light intensity and your physiographic factors refer to the lay of the land so that includes the altitude the slope as well as the the availability of sunlight so we refer to those aspects and finally we went on to discussing the living components in an ecosystem and that we looked at from your producers which were plants and we refer to them as your autotrophs to your secondary primary and secondary consumers which we refer to as heterotrophs we also coined the term primary consumers secondary consumers amongst them we looked at your predators we looked at your omnivores and we looked at your carnivores we also mentioned that your herbivores were important and that they were either your omnivores or carnivores that we the source of food to them finally we discussed the importance of your decomposers in an ecosystem and then we finally looked at how they interconnected with each other in food webs which are important to showing the interaction between organisms as we wrap this section up guys you've been a fantastic audience i trust that you have enjoyed the lesson and that you take notes from these thank you for joining and listening attentively i wish you well and have a biolike day see you soon [Music] you