Biology – Our Environment – Notes For W.B.C.S Examination.

• Environment is a natural world in which all living beings and non-living things exist.Continue Reading Biology – Our Environment – Notes For W.B.C.S Examination.
• The substances, which are broken down by the biological processes, are known as biodegradable.
• The substances, which are NOT broken down by the biological processes, are known as non-biodegradable.

Ecosystem

• An ecosystem comprises of biotic components (all living organisms) and abiotic components (all physical factors, such as temperature, rainfall, wind, soil and minerals) of a given area. E.g. Lake ecosystem, Forest ecosystem, Marine ecosystem, etc.
• In a given geographic region, all the living organisms interact with each other and their growth, reproduction, and other activities are largely dependent on the abiotic components of the ecosystem.
• In an ecosystem, all green plants and certain blue-green algae can produce their food (themselves) by the process of photosynthesis; hence, they are known as the producers.
• The organisms, depending on the producers either directly or indirectly, can be termed as herbivores, carnivores, omnivores and parasites.
• All those animals that eat plants are known as herbivores (also known as primary consumers). E.g. cow, goat, rabbit, deer, etc.
• All those animals that eat other animals are known as carnivores (also known as secondary consumers) E.g. tiger, lion, snake, etc.
• All those animals that eat both plants (and its products) and other animals are known as omnivores.
• The larger size of carnivores and omnivores animals are known as tertiary consumers.
• The microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, break-down the dead remains and waste products of organisms and hence they are known as decomposers.
• The pyramid given above illustrates that the population of producers is maximum and as we go up, the population of subsequent consumers keeps decreasing.

Food Chain

• A series of animals (of different biotic level) feeding one another forms a food chain.
• Each level of the food chain forms a trophic level (see the image given below).
• In the given image, (a) illustrates food chain in nature; (b) illustrates food chain in a grassland region; and (c) illustrates food chain of pond ecosystem.
• The autotrophs (i.e. producers) exist at the first trophic level.
• The herbivores (i.e. the primary consumers) come at the second trophic level.
• The small carnivores (i.e. the secondary consumers) comes at the third trophic level and larger carnivores or the tertiary consumers comes at the fourth trophic level.

Transmission of Energy

• While transmission of energy from one trophic level to second, large amount of energy gets lost, which cannot be used again.
• The green plants (i.e. producers) in a terrestrial ecosystem capture about 1% of the energy of sunlight and convert it into food energy.
• Secondly, when primary consumers eat green plants, about 10% of the food eaten is transmitted into its own body and made available for the next level of consumers.

Food Web

• When the (food) relationship is shown in a series of branching lines instead of a straight line, it is known as a food web .

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