Weekly Reflection : Ecology

For the week of 3/10/2014 - 3/14/14, I learned about ecosystems.
     An ecosystem is the interaction of a community with its environment. I also learned about abiotic factors (physical, nonliving parts of an ecosystem{aka rocks, water, air, temperature}.), and biotic factors (relationships between living things {organisms}.). Within biotic factors there are energy relationships between organisms. Producers or autotrophs make their own food and other food, there are the green plants. Then there are the consumers that feed on other organisms. One example of that is a heterotroph because they can not make their own food. There are three different types of consumers. One type is the herbivore that feeds on only plants, they are primary consumers. Another type is the carnivore which feeds on other animals. Secondary consumers feed on herbivores, and tertiary consumers feed on secondary consumers. The last type of consumer is the omnivore, which eats both plants and animals. There are also decomposers which break down dead organisms meaning recycled materials in the ecosystem. Producers, consumers, and decomposers are all part of the food chain. The food chain shows the feeding relationships within an ecosystem.
     Energy within an ecosystem orginally comes from the sun. Energy flows from producers to consumers. A couple types of producers or autotrophs are phototrophs (use light energy), and chemoautotrophs (use chemical energy). Next in energy flow is detritivores or scavengers that feed on dead plant and animal remains. Then its is decomposers which are fungi and bacteria. One subheading from energy would be the feeding relationships. Energy flows in one direction from producers to various levels of consumers. Two charts that show feeding relationships are the food web and the food chain. The food web is a more realistic and complex path through the ecosystem. While a food chain is a simple energy path through an ecosystem. Each different level within those two charts is called a trophic level. There are four different cycles of matter. Water is the first and then it is carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorous.