The term "biogeocenosis" is often applied in ecology, and in biology. This is a combination of objects of biological and nebiological origin, limited to a certain territory and characterized by mutual metabolism and energy.

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Definition

When you remember, what a scientist introduced into science the concept of biogeocenoses, it comes to the Soviet Academician V. N. Sukachev. The term Biogeocenosis was offered to them in 1940. The author of the teachings about Biogeocenosis not only proposed the term, but also created a slim and unfolded theory about these communities.

In Western Science, the definition of "biogeocenosis" is not too common. There is more popular with the doctrine of ecosystems. Sometimes biocenosis is called ecosystems, but it is incorrect.

There are differences between the concepts of "biogeocenosis" and "ecosystem". Ecosystem is a broader concept. It can be limited to water drops, and can spread to thousands of hectares. The boundaries of biogeocenosis are usually the area of \u200b\u200ba single vegetation complex. An example of biogeocenosis can be a deciduous forest or pond.

Properties

The main components of biogeocenosis of inorganic origin are air, water, minerals and other elements. Among living organisms there are plants, animals and microorganisms. Some dwell in the ground world, others underground or under water. True, from the point of view of the functions performed by them, the characteristic of biogeocenosis looks different. The composition of biogeocenosis includes:

• producers;
• consiefs;
• recurates.

These main components of biogeocenosis participate in metabolic processes. There is a close relationship between them.

The role of organic substance manufacturers in biogeocenoses is played by producers. They convert solar energy and minerals in the organic, which performs the function of building material for them. The main process that organizes biogeocenosis is photosynthesis. We are talking about plants that convert solar energy and soil nutrients in the organic.

After death, even a formidable predator becomes minillating and bacteria, decomposing the body, turning organic substances in inorganic. These participants in the process are called renders. Thus, a circle is closed, consisting of interrelated species of plants and animals.

Briefly the Biogeocenosis scheme looks like this. Plants consume the energy of the sun. These are the main glucose manufacturers in biogeocenosis. Animals and other consversions transmit and convert energy and organic matter. In biogeocenosis also includes bacteria, mineralizing organications and helping plants to absorb nitrogen. Each chemical element present on the planet, the entire Table of Mendeleev participates in this cycle. Biogeocenosis is characterized by a complex, self-regulating structure. And everyone who participates in its processes is important and necessary.

The mechanism of self-regulation, which is also called dynamic equilibrium, explain on the example. Suppose that favorable weather conditions led to an increase in the number of plant food. This largely caused the growth of the population of herbivores. Predators began to actively hunt them, reducing the number of herbivores, but increasing their population. All food is missing, so part of predators extinced. As a result, the system returned to the equilibrium state.

Here are what signs speak of the stability of biogeocenoses:

1. a large number of species of living organisms;
2. their participation in the synthesis of inorganic substances;
3. wide living space;
4. lack of negative anthropogenic effects;
5. large range of types of interspecific interaction.

Views

Natural biogeocenosis has natural origin. Examples of artificial biogeocenoses are city parks or agrobiocenoses. In the second case, the main process that organizes biogeocenosis is agricultural activities of a person. The state of the system is caused by a number of anthropogenic characteristics.

The main properties of biogeocenoses created by a person in the agrarian sector depends on what the field is sown, how successful the fight against weeds and pests, which fertilizers and in what quantities are made, how often watering is made.

If suddenly treated crops will be abandoned, they will die without human participation, and weeds and pests will begin to reproduce actively. Then the properties of biogerocenosis will become others.

Artificial biogeocenosis created by man is not capable of self-regulation. The stability of the biogeocenosis depends on the person. Its existence is possible only with active human intervention. The abiotic component of biogeocenosis is often also included in its composition. An example is aquarium. In this small artificial reservoir, various organisms are developing and developing, each of which is included in biogeocenosis.

Most natural natural communities Formed for a long time, sometimes hundreds and thousands of years. Participants "are" soldered "to each other for a long time. Such biogeocenoses are characterized by high resistance. Equilibrium keeps on the relationship between populations. The stability of the biogeocenosis is determined by the relations between the participants of the process and is stable. If there are no significant natural and man-made catastrophes associated with the destruction, coarse human intervention, biogeocenosis is usually constantly in a state of dynamic equilibrium.

Each type of relationship is an important limiting factor in maintaining equilibrium in the system.

Examples

Consider what biogeocenosis is, as an example, taking a meadow. Since the primary link in food networks of biogeocenoses is producers, meadow herbs play this role. The initial source of energy in the biogeocenosis of the meadow is the energy of the Sun. Herbs and shrubs, these basic glucose manufacturers in biogeocenosis are growing, serve food for animals, birds and insects, which, in turn, become prey of predators. Dead remains fall into the soil and are processed by microorganisms.

A feature of phytocenosis (vegetable world) of deciduous forests, unlike meadow or steppe, is the presence of several tiers. In the inhabitants of the upper tiers, which includes higher trees, it is possible to consume more solar energy than the lower, which are capable of exist in the shade. Then there is a tier of shrubs, then - herbs, then, under the layer of dry leaves and wood trunks grow mushrooms.

In biogeocenosis big variety species of plants and other living organisms. The habitats of animals are also divided into several tiers. Some dwell on the tops of the trees, and others are underground.

Such biogeocenosis as a pond is characterized by the fact that the habitat is water, the bottom of the reservoir and the surface surface. Here vegetable world represented by algae. Some of them float on the surface, and the part is constantly hidden under water. They feed fish, insects, crustaceans. Predatory Fish And insects easily find themselves prey, and bacteria and other microorganisms dwell on the bottom of the reservoir and in the thickness of water.

Despite the relative stability of natural biogeocenoses, with the time the properties of biogeocenosis change, turning from one to others. Sometimes the biological system is reorganized quickly, as in the case of overgrowth of fine reservoirs. They are capable of turning into a swamp or meadow in a short time.

Biogerocenosis formation can last centuries. For example, stony, almost naked cliffs are gradually covered with mkhami, then another vegetation appears, destroying the rock breed and changing the landscape and fauna. The properties of biogerocenosis change slowly, but steadily. Only people are able to sharply speed up these changes and not always for the better.

A person must take care of nature, to keep her wealth, prevent pollution ambient and barbarian attitude to its inhabitants. He should not forget that this is his house where the descendants will have to live. And only it depends on it, in what condition he will come. Understand it yourself and explain to others.

The concept of ecosystems. Teaching about biogeocenoses

Communities of organisms are associated with an inorganic medium with close material and energy connections. Plants can only exist due to the constant flow of carbon dioxide, water, oxygen, mineral salts in them. Heterotrophs live at the expense of autotrophic, but need to have inorganic compounds such as oxygen and water. In any particular habitat of the reserves of inorganic compounds needed to maintain the vital activity of inhabiting his organisms, would have enough for a while if these reserves were not renewed. The return of biogenic elements on Wednesday occurs both during the lives of organisms (as a result of breathing, excretion, defecation) and after their death, as a result of the decomposition of corpses and plant residues. Thus, the community forms a certain system with an inorganic medium, in which the flow of atoms caused by the vital activity of organisms tends to closes the circulation.

The concept of ecosystems.Any combination of organisms and inorganic components in which the cycle of substances can be carried out, called ecosystem.The term was proposed in 1935 by the English ecologist A. Tensley, who emphasized that with this approach, inorganic and organic factors act as equal components and we cannot separate the organisms from the specific environment. A. Tensley considered ecosystems as the main units of nature on the surface of the Earth, although they do not have a certain amount and can cover the space of any length.

To maintain the cycle of substances in the system, the availability of the reserve of inorganic molecules in a digestible form and three functionally different environmental groups Organisms: producers, consumers and reigns.

Producentsavtotrophic organisms that can build their bodies at the expense of inorganic compounds are performed. Consue - These are heterotrophic organisms that consume organic matter producers or other consumers and transform it into new forms. Roducenie live at the expense of a dead organic matter, translating it again into inorganic connections. Classification This relative, as the consversions, and the producers themselves are partly in the role of the renders, allocating mineral substances in the environment in the environment.

In principle, the cycle of atoms can be maintained in the system and without intermediate links, due to the activities of the two other groups. However, such ecosystems are found more like exceptions, for example, in those areas where communities are functioned only from microorganisms. The role of consumers is carried out in nature mainly animals, their activities to maintain and accelerate cyclic migration of atoms in ecosystems are complex and diverse.

The scale of the ecosystem in nature is extremely different. Nonodynakiac Also the degree of closetty of the substance supported in them, i.e., the multipleness of the involvement of the same atoms in the cycles is also. As a separate ecosystems, you can consider, for example, a pillow of lichens on the trunk of a tree, and a collapsing stump with its population, and a small temporary water, meadow, forest, steppe, desert, the whole ocean and, finally, the entire surface of the earth, occupied by life.

In some types of ecosystems, the removal of a substance beyond their limits is so large that their stability is mainly maintained due to the influx of the same amount of the substance from the outside, while the inner circulation is inoperate. Such are the flowing reservoirs, rivers, streams, plots on the steep slopes of the mountains. Other ecosystems have a significantly more complete cycle of substances and relatively autonomous (forest, meadows, steppes at placory sites, lakes, etc.). However, no, even the largest, earth ecosystem does not have a completely closed cycle. The continents are intensively exchanged with the substance with the oceans, the atmosphere plays a large role in these processes, and all of our planet part of the matter gets from outer space, and the part is in space.

In accordance with the hierarchy of the community, life on Earth is also manifested in the hierarchy of the respective ecosystems. Eco-systemic organization of life is one of required conditions Her existence. The stocks of biogenic elements, of which living organisms are built, on Earth as a whole and on each particular area on its surface are not boundless. Only the cycle system could give these reserves the infinity property necessary to continue their lives. Maintain and carry out a circulation can only functionally different groups of organisms. Thus, the functional-ecological diversity of living beings and the organization of the flow of the substances extracted from the environment in the cycles is ancient property of life.

Teaching about biogeocenosis.In parallel with the development of the concept of ecosystems, the doctrine of biogeocenoses is successfully developing, the author of which was academician V. N. Sukachev (1942).

"Biogeocenosis - This is a totality at a certain mass of the earth's surface of homogeneous natural phenomena (atmospheric, rock, vegetation, animal world and world of microorganisms, soil and hydrological conditions), having its own specifics of the interaction of these components of its components and a certain type of metabolism and energy among themselves and other natural phenomena and is an internally contradictory unity in constant movement, development "(V.N. Sukachev, 1964).

"Ecosystem" and "Biogeocenosis" - close in the essence of the concept, but if the first of them is applicable to the designation of systems that provide a circulation of any rank, then "biogeocenosis" - the concept of territorial, attributable to such land plots, which are occupied by certain units of plant cover - phytocenoses . Biogeocenosis Science - biogeocenology. - grew out of geobootanis and aimed at studying the functioning of ecosystems in specific conditions of the landscape, depending on the properties of the soil, relief, the nature of the circumference of the biogeocenosis and the components of its primary components - rock, animals, plants, microorganisms.

In Biogeocenosis, V. N. Sukachev allocated two blocks: ecotop -set of conditions abiotic environment and biocenosis- A combination of all living organisms.

Ecotop.often considered as an abiotic medium, not transformed by plants (primary complex of factors of the physico-geographical environment), and biotope- as a combination of elements of the abiotic medium, modified by the media-forming activities of living organisms. In the inner addition of biogeocenosis, such structural and functional units, as Parcelles (the term proposed by N. V.Dilis) is distinguished. Biogeotic parcels includes plants, animal population, microorganisms, dead organic, soil and atmosphere throughout the vertical thickness of biogeocenosis, creating its inner mosaic. Biogeocetic parcels differ visually on vegetation: height and closure of tiers, species composition, life condition and age spectrum of dominant species. Sometimes they are well excluded in the composition, structure and power of the forest litter. The names are usually given by plants dominant in different tiers. For example, parcels such as spruce-voloistosok, spruce-acid, large-particle in the windows of a wood tier, oak-sneeze, oak-oxovo-medulunny, Berezovo-fir-aluminous, Osinovo-Snove, can be distinguished in the volio-oxuous dazznnik.

Inside each parcel is created phytoclimate.In the spring in shady spruce parcels, the snow lies longer than in areas under deciduous trees or windows. Therefore, the active life in the spring in parcel comes in different times, the processing of Derita also goes at different speeds. The boundaries between parcels can be both relatively clear and blurred. The relationship is carried out as a result of conditioning medium conditions (heat exchange, change in lighting, redistribution of precipitation, etc.) and as a result of material and energy exchange. The spread of vegetable caps, the transfer of pollen, dispute, seeds and fruits by air flow and animals, movement of animals, surface precipitation and melt water movements, moving mineral and organic matter. All this maintains biogeocenosis as a single, internally solumed ecosystem.

The role of different parcels in the structure and functioning of biogeocenoses of non-etinakov, the largest parcels occupying large spaces and volume are called main.They are a bit. It is they who define the appearance and blocking of biogeocenosis. Parcels occupying small areas are called complementary.The number is always more of them. Some parcels are more stable, others are subject to significant and rapid changes. As the plants are growing and aging, the parcels can strongly change the composition and structure, seasonal development rhythms, participate in different ways in the cycle of substances.

Fig. 145.Window resumes of major breeds in forest biogeocenosis (according to O. V. Smirnova, 1998)

The mosaic of forest biogeocenoses and the emergence of new parcels are often associated with the formation of windows in the forests, i.e., violation of the wood tier in connection with the violation of old trees, outbreaks of mass pests - insects, damage to mushrooms, activities of major hoofs. The creation of such a mosaic is absolutely necessary for the sustainable existence of the forest and the resumption of the principal breeds of trees, which often cannot develop under maternal crowns, as it requires other conditions of lighting and mineral nutrition. Renewal windowsfor different breeds, there should be sufficient spatial extent (Fig. 145). In Eastern European wide forests, no view can move to fruiting windows, commensurate with the projections of the crown of one or two adult trees. Even the most shadowless of them - beaks, maples - the illuminated parcels in 400-600 m 2 are required, and the full ontogenesis of light-affiliated species - oak, ash, aspens can be completed only in large windows of at least 1500-2000 m 2.

Based on a detailed study of the structure and functioning of biogeocenoses in ecology, recently develops the concept of a mosaic-cyclic organization of ecosystems. From this point of view, the sustainable existence of many species in the ecosystem is achieved through the natural violations of habitats that allow new generations to occupy the newly liberated space.

Biogeocenology considers the surface of the Earth as a network of adjacent biogeocenoses, interconnected through the migration of substances, but nevertheless, although in varying degrees, autonomous and specific on their cycles. The specific properties of the biogeocenosis site give it an uniqueness, highlighting from other, source in type.

Both concepts - ecosystems and biogeocenoses - complement and enrich each other, allowing you to consider functional connections Communities and the surrounding inorganic environment in different aspects and from different points of view.

Introduction

Biogeocenoses - elementary units of the biosphere. The scale of biogeocenoses in nature is extremely different. Nonodynakiac Also, the degree of closerness of the substance supported in them, i.e. Multipreciation of the involvement of the same atoms in the cycles.

In accordance with the hierarchy of the community, life on Earth is also manifested in the hierarchy of the respective biogeocenoses. Such organization of life is one of the necessary conditions for its existence.

The stocks of the biogenic elements, of which living organisms are built, on Earth as a whole and on each particular section of its surface are not limited. Only the cycle system could give these reserves the infinity property necessary to continue their lives. To maintain a circulation of substances in the system, it is necessary: \u200b\u200bthe reserve of inorganic molecules in a digestible form; Three functionally different environmental groups of organisms - producers, consumers and reasons. Maintain and carry out a circulation can only functionally different groups of organisms. Thus, such properties of ecosystems as a functional and ecological diversity of living beings, the organization of flows extracted from the environment of substances in cycles, as well as the ability to resist external influences - the most ancient properties of life ensuring the existence of biogeocenoses.

The concept and structure of biogeocenosis

The elementary structural unit of the biosphere is biogeocenosis. This concept was introduced by V.N. Sukachev in 1940 he concluded that in nature there are systems that combine biotic and abiotic components. These systems are confined to a certain territory called Ecotop. The unity of biocenosis and ecootope creates a natural complex, which V. N. Sukachev called Biogeocenosis. By definition, biogeocenosis is a combination at a certain mass of the earth's surface of homogeneous natural phenomena (atmospheric, rock, vegetation, animal world and the world of microorganisms, soil and hydrological conditions), which has its special specifics of the interactions of these components of its components and a certain type of metabolism and their energy among themselves and with other phenomena of nature and is an internally contradictory dialectical unity in constant motion, development.

Biogeocenosis consists of a number of components that interdepend each other's existence:

1. Community of vegetable organisms, providing organic matter and energy, all living people living here - producers, i.e. Phytocenosis.

2. Biocomplex of animal organisms (invertebrates and vertebrates), inhabitants in the soil and the superior medium and living due to nutrients created by producers - consumers, i.e. Zoecenosis.

3. Microorganisms (bacteria, mushrooms, actinomycetes, etc.) living in the soil, in the air and water environment and decomposing organic compounds to the minimum state - the reinstairs, i.e. Microbiocenosis.

These three biogeocenosis biological components are formed between the biological components form the unity of higher rank - biocenosis. Thus, biocenosis is called the entire set of living beings, characteristic of a certain section of the earth's surface and adapted to joint habitat in a given territory with homogeneous conditions of existence.

4. Soil cover with underlined layers of mainland and soil-groundwater - Edafotop.

5. The atmosphere containing biogenic gases is oxygen and carbon dioxide - atmospheric moisture and factors of the external environment as lighting, temperature, precipitation, etc. - Climatop.

The last two components of biogeocenosis - edafotop and climatop - also interact with each other and form a system called Ecotop.

All listed components of any biogeocenosis are closely related to the unity and homogeneity of the territory, the total stream of energy, the exchange and circulation of biogenic chemical elements, seasonal changes climatic conditions, trophic relationships, numerical and mutual fitness different speciespopulations of phototrophic and heterotrophic organisms.

Each natural biogeocenosis is a self-regulating system, which has developed as a result of many thousands and millions of years and has the ability to transform a substance and energy in accordance with its structure and dynamics. Such a system by self-regulation is able to largely withstand both environmental changes and harsh changes in the number of certain organisms.

The sizes of specific biogeocenoses vary in fairly wide limits: in the deserts, the area of \u200b\u200bbiogerocenosis is hundreds of thousands of square meters, the area of \u200b\u200bone forest biogeocenosis - usually from several hundred and several tens of thousand square meters, meadow and steppe even less - up to several tens, rarely - hundreds of square meters . As a rule, there are no sharp boundaries between biogeocenoses, and one gradually passes into another.

In various literature, another term close to biogeocenosis in its content is widely distributed instead of biogerocenosis, which means the functional system, which includes the community of living beings and their habitat. The term "ecosystem" proposed an English Ecologist A. Tensley in 1935. The concept of "ecosystem", in contrast to the "biogeocenosis", more general and less definite. The ecosystem can be considered both the pond and the ocean, like the tree stump with its inhabitants, and the whole biosphere globe. Some scientists believe that biogeocenosis is an ecosystem, the borders of which are determined by phytocenosis. In other words, biogeocenosis is a special case, a certain rank of ecosystem. This is closed and capable of self-regulation of the ecosystem.

The closed is called such an ecosystem in which the substance circulates from the producers to the reinstairs in a circle and precisely within this ecosystem. For example, in the lake, biogenic elements are repeatedly held in the same circle: algae - zooplankton - fish - bacteria - mineral biogenic substances - again algae.

In open ecosystems, the substance in a circle does not appeal. For example, in the ecosystems of a separate tree, the caterpillar eats producer leaves; The caterpillar itself catch birds and attribute to their nests to other trees. Thus, the substance from this system is removed and transferred to another system.

The mechanism of self-regulation in ecosystems is carried out on the principle of negative feedback. This principle in a simplified version can be imagined in the form of a "predator - victim" system, which is constantly maintained in an equilibrium state. If for some reason the number of victim is reduced, then due to lack of food, the number of predator decreases over time. Reducing the number of predator, respectively, leads to a decrease in the pressure of the victim, the number of which increases. This again creates the conditions for increasing the number of predator. Thus, the system "predator - the victim" is self-regulated, i.e. Hold in equilibrium condition. At the same time, the number of victims and predator constantly fluctuates about some mean.

Any biocenosis interacts with its habitat - biotope, resulting in a more complex biological system - biogeocenosis.

The term Biogeocenosis was introduced in 1942 by Soviet scientists Vladimir Nikolayevich Sukachev. The term comes from greek words bios.- a life, gE.- Land, coins(cenosis) - Community.

Biogeocenosis- This is an evolutionary existing, spatially limited, long self-sustaining homogeneous natural system, interconnected living organisms and bone components characterized by a certain type of metabolic type and energy between the elements of the system and external in relation to the community factors.

Environmental system(ecosystem) - a set of populations of various types of plants, animals and microbes, interacting between themselves and the environment in such a way that this set is preserved indefinitely for a long time.

The term "environmental system (ecosystem)" was proposed by the English scientist A. Tensley in 1935.

Biogeocenosis and ecosystem - concepts are similar, but not identical. The concept of "ecosystem" does not have a rank and dimension, so it applies both to a simple natural (anthill, rotting stump) and artificial (aquarium, reservoir, park) and to complex natural complexes of organisms from their habitat.

Biogeocenoses are only natural education. Biogeocenosis differs from the ecosystem with a certainty size. If the ecosystem can cover the space of any length - from a drop of pond water with microorganisms contained in it to the biosphere as a whole, then biogeocenosis is an ecosystem, the boundaries of which are due to the nature of plant cover, i.e., certain phytocenosis.

Consequently, any biogeocenosis is the ecosystem, but not every ecosystem is biogeocenosis. Thus, the concept of "ecosystem" is wider. Biogeocenosis is a special case of "ecosystem".

The composition of the ecosystem is represented by two groups of components:

 Abiotic - components of inanimate nature ( biotope);

 biotic - components of wildlife ( biocenosis).

The composition of biogeocenosis in the form of a scheme is represented in fig. one.

Figure 1 - Biogeocenosis composition scheme

Biotop includes:

 hydrotop. - a set of hydrological factors;

 climatop. - a set of climatic factors;

 edafotop. - A combination of soil factors (soil - soils) - a geological environment.

Abiotic components are the following basic elements of inanimate nature, differing in its functional purpose:

1) inorganic substances and chemical elements involved in metabolism between live and dead matter (water, carbon monoxide (IV) oxygen, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, iron, chlorine, etc.);

2) organic substances that bind the abiotic and biotic parts of ecosystems (carbohydrates, fats, amino acids, proteins);

3) ground-air or water habitat;

4) climate regime (Temperature, duration of the daylight, etc.).

Biocenosis- The interrelated set of microorganisms, plants of mushrooms and animals, inhabiting a fairly homogeneous area of \u200b\u200bsushi or reservoir. In the living part of biogeocenosis allocate three main functional component:

 A complex of autotrophic organisms - producers providing organic matter and, therefore, the remaining organisms (phytocenosis (green plants), as well as photo and chemosynthetic bacteria);

 a complex of heterotrophic organisms - consonutors living due to nutrients created by producers and low-order consultations (zoecenosis (animals), as well as inhlormophile plants);

 Complex of organisms of  funds decomposing organic compounds to a mineral condition (microbocenosis, as well as mushrooms and other organisms that feed on the dead organic matter).

All components of ecotope and biocenosis are closely related. At the biogeocenosis level, all the processes of transformation of the substance and energy in the biosphere occur. The transformative activity of a person is aimed primarily on natural environmental systems.

All ecosystems existing on the planet Earth are divided into three types:

1) ground;

2) freshwater;

3) marine.

Energy and productivity ecosystems

In the process of biotic metering, organic substance is created and consuming, i.e. The ecosystem has a certain productivity of biomass. Biomass is measured in units of mass or express the amount of energy concluded in the tissues.

Productivity- This is the rate of biomass production per unit of time.

Ecosystem productivity- This is the rate at which the energy of the Sun is absorbed by the organisms-producers (mainly green plants) during photosynthesis or chemical synthesis by chemoproducments. This energy is materialized (binds) in the form of organic substances of producer tissues.

There are different levels of producing organic matter: primary products created by producers per unit of time, and secondary products - an increase in the time of consuming mass time. Primary products are divided into gross and clean.

 gross primary products - The total rate of accumulation of organic substances producents (photosynthesis speed), including those organic substances that have been spent on breathing and secretory functions.

 pure primary products - The rate of accumulation of organic substances minus those that were spent during breathing and secretion for the studied period.

This product that can be used by the next trophic level.

 secondary productivity - Energy accumulation rate consultations.

Net community productivity - The speed of the overall accumulation of organic substances left after consumption by consumption heterotrophs (pure primary products minus consumption by heterotrophs).

Primary products available to heterotrofam, including a person, is a maximum of 4% of the total energy of the sun entering the surface of the Earth.

Productivity  The best property of the biosphere. The impact of a person on environmental systems associated with their destruction or pollution leads to interruption of energy and substance flow, which means to reduce productivity.

Think about your home and about all objects and residents in it. You probably have furniture, books, food in your refrigerator, family and, perhaps, even pets. Your home consists of a variety of living organisms and non-living items. Like the house, any ecosystem is a community of living individuals and non-living things that coexist in one space. These communities have borders that are not always clear, and it is often difficult to understand where one ecosystem ends and the other begins. This is the main difference between it from biogeocenosis. Examples of those and other systems we will look more detailed.

Ecosystem: Definition

Like a car engine consisting of several parts working together, the ecosystem has interacting elements that support its work.

According to the definition of V.N. Sukacheva, the ecosystem is a combination of a certain territory of homogeneous natural phenomena (atmosphere, rock, vegetation, animal world and the world of microorganisms, soils and hydrological conditions), which has special specifics of the interactions of these components and a certain type of metabolism and metabolism and Energy (among themselves with other phenomena of nature) and is an internal contradictory unity in constant motion and development.

Live creatures are biotic features, and non-fat - abiotic. Each ecosystem is unique, but they all have three main components:

• AutoTrophic (energy producers).
• Heterotrophs (energy consumers).
• Inanimate nature.

Plants make up the majority of authotrophs in the ecosystem, while most of the heterotrophs are animals. Non-fat nature is soil, sediment, sheet litter and other organic matter on Earth or at the bottom of the reservoirs. There are two types of ecosystems - closed and open. First include those that do not have any resources (exchange of energy from the environment) or results (exchange of energy from the inside ecosystem). Open - these are those that have both the exchange of energy and the results of the internal exchange.

Classification of ecosystems

Ecosystems are of different shapes and sizes, but their classification helps scientists better understand the processes flowing into them and manage them. They can be classified in various ways, but most often they are defined as terrestrial and water. There are a lot of types of ecosystems, but three of them, called biomami, are basic. It:

1. Freshwater.
2. Sea.
3. Ground.

Freshwater ecosystems

If we talk about freshwater ecosystems, the following examples of natural biogeocenoses can be called:

• Pond - relatively small pond, which includes various types of plants, amphibians and insects. Sometimes the ponds are found in the ponds, which is often artificially introduced into these environments.
• River ecosystem. Since rivers are always associated with the seas, they tend to contain plants, fish, amphibians and even insects. This is an example of biogeocenosis, which can also include birds, because birds often hunt in water and around her small fish or insects. An example of biogeocenosis of freshwater reservoir is any freshwater medium. The smallest live part of the food chain here is plankton, which often eats fish and other small creatures.

Sea ecosystems

Ocean ecosystems are relatively restrained, although they, like freshwater ecosystems, also include some birds that hunt fish and insects on the surface of the ocean. Examples of natural biogeocenosis of these ecosystems:

• Shallow water. Some small fish and corals live only near Sushi.
• Deep water. Large and even gigantic creatures can live deep in the waters of the World Ocean. Some of the most strange creatures in the world dwell right at the bottom.
• Warm water. Warm water, for example, in Pacific Ocean, contain one of the most impressive and complex ecosystems in the world.
• Cold water. Less diverse cold water also maintain relatively complex ecosystems. Plankton usually forms the foundation of the food chain, following small fishwhich eats larger fish or other representatives of the animal world, such as seals or penguins.

Plankton and other plants who have chosen ocean waters near the surface are responsible for 40% of the total photosynthesis, which occurs on Earth. Extreme creatures are also found (for example, shrimp), which are powered by both plankton. They themselves, then usually eat larger individuals - fish. Interestingly, in the deep ocean, plankton cannot exist, because photosynthesis is impossible there, because the light cannot penetrate so far into the waters. It is here that creatures adapted to the conditions of eternal darkness interesting way and belong to the number of fascinating, terrible and intriguing living beings on Earth.

Ground ecosystems

We give examples of biogeocenoses found on Earth:

• Tundra is an ecosystem found in northern latitudes, such as North Canada, Greenland and Siberia. This community marks a point called a tree line, because it is there that cold and limited sunlight make it difficult to fully grow trees. Tundra usually has relatively simple ecosystems due to harsh living conditions.
• Taiga is a bit more favorable for the growth of trees, because it lies below the latitude. And yet it is still quite cold. Taiga is found in northern latitudes and is the largest earthly ecosystem on Earth. Types of trees who have taken root here are coniferous (Christmas trees, cedars and pines).
• Moderate deciduous forest. Its base make up trees, the leaves of which are painted in beautiful colors - red, yellow and orange before turning. This type of ecosystem is found in latitudes below the taiga, and it is there that we begin to observe alternating seasonal changes, such as warm summer And cold winters. There are many different species Forests worldwide, including deciduous and coniferous. They are inhabited by many species of animals and plants, so the ecosystem is very rich here. It is difficult to list all the examples of natural biogeocenoses within such a community.
• Tropical forests - usually have extremely rich ecosystems, because there are a lot of different types of animals and plants on a rather small territory.
• Desert. This is an example of biogeocenosis, which is the opposite of the tundra in many ways. Although this is also harsh in terms of the conditions of the ecosystem.
• Savannes differ from the desert with the amount of precipitation, which fall there every year. Hence, biological diversity It is wider.
• The meadows (pastures) support a wide range of life and may have very complex and involved ecosystems.

Since there are so many different types of land ecosystems, it is difficult to make generalizations that cover them all. Examples of biogeocenosis in nature are so diverse that they are difficult to summarize. Nevertheless similar features are available. For example, most ecosystems contain herbivores that eat plants (and they, in turn, receive food from the Sun and from the soil), and everyone has carnivorous animals that eat herbivores and other carnivores. Some regions, for example, the North Pole, mainly inhabit the predators. The vegetation in the world of snowless silence is absent. Many animals and plants in terrestrial ecosystems They also interact with freshwater, and sometimes ocean communities.

Complex systems

Ecosystems are extensive and complex. They include the chains of animals - from the largest mammals to the smallest insects - along with plants, mushrooms and various microorganisms. All these forms of life interact and affect each other. Bears and birds eat fish, earthling eating insects, and caterpillars eating leaves. Everything in nature is in a thin balance. But scientists like technical terms, so this balance of organisms in the ecosystem is often referred to as homeostasis (self-regulation) of the ecosystem.

In the real world of communities, nothing can be perfectly balanced. Thus, when the ecosystem is in equilibrium, it means that it is in a relatively stable state: the population of various animals remain in the same range, their number can increase and decrease at a certain stage, but there is no general trend "up" or "down".

Terms of gradual change

Over time, conditions in nature are changing, including the number of one or another population. This happens constantly, since some species compete with others, often this is due to climate change and landscapes. Animals must adapt to the environment. It is important to understand that in nature these processes flow slowly. During a certain geological period, even rocks and landscapes, and systems that seem to be in stable equilibrium are changed, are in fact not.

When we talk about the homeostasis of the ecosystem, we focus on the relative time framework. We give a relatively simple example of biogeocenosis: Lions eat gazelles, and gazelles eat wild herbs. If a population of lions increases in one particular year, the number of gazelles will decrease. Consequently, the herbal cover of wild plants will increase. The following year, perhaps, there will be no longer enough gazelles to feed Lviv. This will lead to the fact that the number of predators will decrease, and with the advent of more grass will grow the population of gazelles. This will continue for several continuous cycles, which cause populations to move up and down in a specific range.

Examples of biogeocenoses can be given, which will not be so equilibrium. This is due to exposure anthropogenic factor - cutting of trees, release greenhouse gases that warm the planet, animal hunting, and so on. Currently, we can observe the fastest disappearance of certain forms in history. Whenever an animal disappears, or its population is rapidly decreasing, you can talk about non-equilibrium. For example, from the beginning of 2016, only 60 remains in the world amur leopards, as well as only 60 rhinos of Javan.

What is needed for survival?

What important things are needed for survival? There are five elements that need all living beings:

• sunlight;
• water;
• air;
• food;
• habitat with the right temperature.

What is an ecosystem? This is a specific area or in water, or on land. Ecosystems can be small (place under rock or inside a tree trunk, pond, lake or forest) or large, such as the ocean or our entire planet. Live organisms in the ecosystem, plants, animals, trees and insects interact with non-resident constituents, such as weather, soil, sun and climate, and depend on each other.

Food chains

In the ecosystem, all living beings need food for energy. Green plants are called manufacturers in the food chain. With the help of the Sun, they can produce their own food. This is the very first level of the food chain. Primary consumers, such as insects, caterpillars, cows and sheep, consume (eaten) plants. Animals (lions, snakes, wild cats) are secondary consumers.

Ecosystem - term, very often used in biology. It has already been mentioned, is a community of plants and animals, interacting with each other in the art, as well as with an inanimate medium. Non-fat components include climatic and weather conditions, sun, soil, atmosphere. And all these different organisms live in close proximity to each other and interact with each other. An example of forest biogeocenosis, where there are rabbits, and foxes, clearly shows what kind of relations are these representatives of the fauna. Lisa eats rabbit to survive. This connection has an impact on other creatures and even on plants that live in the same or similar conditions.

Examples of ecosystems and biogeocenoses

Ecosystems can be huge, with many hundreds of different animals and plants that live in a subtle balance, or they can be relatively small. In harsh places, especially on the poles, ecosystems are relatively simple, because there are only a few species that can withstand complex living conditions. Some creatures can live in several different communities around the world and stay in different relationships with other or familiar creatures.

Earth as an ecosystem stands out in the whole universe. Is there an opportunity to control environmental systems? On the example of biogeocenoses, you can see how any intervention can provoke a mass of changes, both positive and negative.

A whole ecosystem can be destroyed if you increase the temperature or sea level, change the climate. It is possible to influence the natural balance and harm living organisms. This may occur due to anthropogenic activities, such as cutting down forests, urbanization, as well as natural phenomena - floods, storms, fires or eruptions of volcanoes.

Biogeocenosis power supply chains: Examples

At the basic functional level, biogeocenosis typically includes primary manufacturers (plants) capable of collecting energy from the Sun due to the process called photosynthesis. This energy then flows through food chain. Next are consumers: primary (herbivore) and secondary (carnivorous). These consumers feed the captured energy. Decomposters operate at the bottom of the food chain.

Dead fabrics and life waste take place at all levels. The garbered, childcores and decomposing substances not only consume this energy, but also destroy the organic, splitting it into the components. It is the microbes that finish the work on the decomposition and produce organic components that can be used again by manufacturers.

Biogeocenosis in the forest

Before bringing examples of forest biogeocenosis, back again to the concept of the ecosystem. An abundance of flora is observed in the forest, so it inhabits a large number of organisms that exist within a relatively small space. The density of living organisms is quite high here. To make sure that at least a few examples of forest biogeocenoses should be considered:

• Tropical evergreen forest. Gets an impressive amount of precipitation per year. The main characteristic is the presence of thick vegetation, which includes high trees at different levels, each of which is a shelter for different types of animals.
• Tropical deciduous forest make up shrubs and dense bushes along with a wide variety of trees. This type is characterized by a large variety of fauna and flora.
• Moderate evergreen forest - there are quite a few trees, as well as mosses and fern.
• Moderate deciduous forest is located in wet moderate latitudes with sufficient precipitation. Summer and winter are clearly defined, and the trees are losing the leaves in the autumn and winter months.
• Taiga, located directly in front of the Arctic regions, is characterized by evergreen coniferous trees. The temperature is low (below zero) for six months, and life at this time here seems to get silent. During the remaining periods in the taiga, full of migratory birds and insects.

The mountains

Another vivid example of natural biogeocenosis. Mountain ecosystems are distinguished by a large variety, here you can find a large number of animals and plants. The main feature of the mountains is the dependence of the climate and soils from the height, that is high-rise explanancy. In impressive altitudes, harsh environmental conditions are usually dominated and only flavored alpine vegetation survives. Animals that occur there have thick wool cover. The lower slopes are usually covered with coniferous forests.

Influence of man

Together with the term "ecosystem" in ecology, a similar concept is used - Biogeocenosis. Examples described were first given in 1944 by the Soviet ecologist Sukachev. He proposed the following definition: biogeocenosis is the interaction between the combination of organisms and the territory of habitat. They showed the first examples of biogeocenosis and biocenosis (living component of the environmental system).

Today, biogeocenosis is considered as a relatively homogeneous section of the land, on which a certain composition of living beings live in close relationships with elements of inanimate nature and related metabolism and energy. Examples of biogerocenosis in nature are diverse, but all these communities interact in clear frames that are determined by homogeneous phytocenosis: meadow, pine forest, pond, and so on. Is it possible to somehow affect the course of events in ecosystems?

Consider on the example of biogeocenoses the possibility of managing environmental systems. Man is always the main threat to the environment, and despite the fact that there are many environmental organizations, Nature defenders will be one step behind in their efforts when faced with large corporate enterprises. The development of cities, the construction of the dam, the drainage of the lands - all this contributes to the constantly increasing destruction of various natural ecosystems. Although many business corporations were warned about their destructive influence, not everyone perceive these problems seriously.

Any biogeocenosis is an ecosystem, but not every ecosystem is biogeocenosis

A vivid example of biogeocenosis is a pine forest. But the puddle on its territory is an ecosystem. It is not biogeocenosis. But the whole forest can also be called the ecosystem. Thus, both of these concepts are similar, but not identical. An example of biogeocenosis is any ecosystem, limited by a certain phytocenosis - a vegetable community, which includes a combination of plant species diversity due to environmental conditions of the environment. An interesting example It is a biosphere, which is a huge ecosystem, but not biogeocenosis, since herself consists of numerous bricks - diverse in the form and content of biogeocenoses.