Energy Flow and Nutrient Cycling in the Epipelagic Zone of the Ocean
Introduction: “Energy Flow’’ is an environmental process that describes the flow of energy through a food chain and attempts to ascertain the relative importance of various individual component species and feeding relationships within a particular ecosystem.
“Energy” itself is defined as the ability to do work: All living plants and animals expend energy in their environment. All three laws of thermodynamics apply, especially the first: “Energy can neither be created or destroyed, but merely converted from one form to another”. In any ecosystem, energy is lost to the surroundings.
A “Nutrient” is a food or any nourishing substance assimilated by an organism and required for growth, repair, and metabolism. Plants derive nutrients from the physical environment e.g. air, water, and sediment, whereas animals from ingested food. [3]
The term “Nutrient Cycle” describes the exchange and movement of inorganic and organic matter back into the production of living matter.
I will examine the Energy Flow and Nutrient Cycle in one ecosystem: The …show more content…
The producers, using the process of photosynthesis, will have converted the Carbon-Dioxide into new organic compounds such as glucose. Plants and animals use glucose in the process of respiration to produce energy, while excreting Carbon-Dioxide, and Water. This Carbon-Dioxide that is excreted by the plants and animals can be used again by photosynthetic plants. Fish/Animals eat these plants and assimilate the Carbon into their bio-chemical structure. In this way, Carbon is passed along the food-chain. Eventually, the animals at the top of the food-chain die, and as they fall towards the sea-bed, they’re scavenged upon, and decomposed by bacteria. Overtime, this Carbon may appear as a fossil fuel, and thus may be returned to the atmosphere as CO2, which eventually dissolves into the water -and the cycle begins
Introduction: “Energy Flow’’ is an environmental process that describes the flow of energy through a food chain and attempts to ascertain the relative importance of various individual component species and feeding relationships within a particular ecosystem.
“Energy” itself is defined as the ability to do work: All living plants and animals expend energy in their environment. All three laws of thermodynamics apply, especially the first: “Energy can neither be created or destroyed, but merely converted from one form to another”. In any ecosystem, energy is lost to the surroundings.
A “Nutrient” is a food or any nourishing substance assimilated by an organism and required for growth, repair, and metabolism. Plants derive nutrients from the physical environment e.g. air, water, and sediment, whereas animals from ingested food. [3]
The term “Nutrient Cycle” describes the exchange and movement of inorganic and organic matter back into the production of living matter.
I will examine the Energy Flow and Nutrient Cycle in one ecosystem: The …show more content…
The producers, using the process of photosynthesis, will have converted the Carbon-Dioxide into new organic compounds such as glucose. Plants and animals use glucose in the process of respiration to produce energy, while excreting Carbon-Dioxide, and Water. This Carbon-Dioxide that is excreted by the plants and animals can be used again by photosynthetic plants. Fish/Animals eat these plants and assimilate the Carbon into their bio-chemical structure. In this way, Carbon is passed along the food-chain. Eventually, the animals at the top of the food-chain die, and as they fall towards the sea-bed, they’re scavenged upon, and decomposed by bacteria. Overtime, this Carbon may appear as a fossil fuel, and thus may be returned to the atmosphere as CO2, which eventually dissolves into the water -and the cycle begins