 A system is a set of connected things or parts which
link together to make it work.
 There are inputs, processes, stores and outputs.
Flour, water, yeast,
butter, salt
Mixing
Baking
Dough Mixture
Bread
 An ecosystem is a community of living things, plus
the non-living things they need.
 Living things e.g. plants and animals are known as
BIOTIC.
 Non-living things e.g. climate, relief and soil are
known as ABIOTIC.
 Parts of the ecosystem are linked together.
Climate
Vegetation
Living Creatures
Soil
Figure 1. A simple ecosystem
Processes
Reproduction
Photosynthesis
Decay
Inputs
Solar Radiation
Water
Nutrients
Oxygen
Recycling of
nutrients
Outputs
Evaporation
Oxygen
 There are a number of different scales that ecosystems
can exist at.
 MICRO – Small e.g. a plant, or a pond
 MESO – Medium e.g. a forest.
 There are also large ecosystems normally called
BIOMES e.g. Tropical Rainforest.
 Within an ecosystem there is a complex system of




energy flows. This can be shown within a food chain
or food web.
PRODUCER – Tree
PRIMARY CONSUMER – Herbivore
SECONDARY CONSUMER – Carnivore
TERTIARY CONSUMER - Carnivore
What would happen if your top predators died?
 How does BIODIVERSITY influence the stability of an
ecosystem?
 How are humans influencing this?
 SUSTAINABILITY IS THE KEY!
Tropical rainforests are located in a band around the equator, mostly in the
area between the Tropic of Cancer (23.5° N latitude) and the Tropic of
Capricorn (23.5° S latitude). This 4800 km wide band is called the “tropics”.
Tropical rainforests are found in South America, West Africa, Australia,
southern India, and Southeast Asia.
 Savannas are located in Africa, Madagascar (an
island off the east coast of Africa), Australia,
South America, India, and the Myanmar-Thailand
region of Southeast Asia.
 A savanna is a hot, seasonally dry grassland with
scattered trees. This environment is intermediate
between a grassland and a forest. Savannas are
located in the dry tropics and the subtropics,
often bordering a rainforest. Savannas have an
extended dry season and a rainy season.
 The animals that live in savannas have adapted to
a great deal of variability in the food supply
throughout the year; there are times of plenty
(during and after the wet season) and times of
almost no food or water (during the dry season).
Many savanna animals migrate to deal with this
problem.
 Many animals live in savannas, from invertebrates
(like grasshoppers, termites, and beetles) to large
mammals (like lions and leopards). The different
savannas of the world support different
populations of animals.
 The coniferous forests are located in the northern
hemisphere and stretch across the North
American, Europe, and Asia continents. These
coniferous forests are also known as the "taiga" or
"boreal" forest. The trees that make up the forest
are cone-bearing trees like the pine, fir, spruce
and hemlock. These evergreen trees have needlelike leaves that keep their green color all year
long. These trees have a shallow root system. The
coniferous forests have short warm summers and
long, cold winters lasting up to seven months.
 The coniferous forest or taiga (the word the
Russians use for coniferous forest) is located in
the northern latitudes. It is mainly located in
Canada and the upper parts of Asia and Europe.
The coniferous forest gets the name coniferous
because the main type of vegetation located in it
is conifers such as pines. There are also a variety
of animals such as caribou, black bears, and lynx.
 The taiga is located in the northern parts of Alaska,
Canada, Asia, and Europe. The taiga is wrapped in a
band around the world and has the tundra above it
and the deciduous forest in the parts below it. This
means that the tundra is at a latitude that is farther
away from the equator then the taiga is and the
deciduous forest is closer to the equator then the
taiga is.
 The animals of the coniferous forest have special
adaptations to help them survive the long cold
winters. Animals such as the ermine, snowshoe hair
and the ptarmigan use camouflage to blend in with
the environment and hide from predators. Many
birds migrate to warmer places and return to the
forest to feed on insects and nest during the summer
months. Several of the larger mammals (mule deer,
elk, bighorn sheep) also migrate to find warmer
temperatures and food. While other animals (bears,
marmots, ground squirrels, and other small
mammals) eat large amounts of food before they
hibernate.
 The main trees that inhabit the coniferous forest
are the pines and other trees like it. The reason
that these trees are there is they have needles that
stay on them all year round. Almost all of the trees
in the taiga also produce cones, thus they have the
species name conifer.
 The climate of the taiga is very cold and dry but
not as much as the tundra is. The taiga gets
between 25-75 cm of rain per year. The taiga has
cold snowy winters and warm summers. Also most
of the precipitation comes in the summer
months. Some other things about the climate of
the taiga is that the average temperature is below
freezing for six months of the year.
maquis
garigue
Maquis
 The Amazon (uses, consequences of deforestation)
 Sustainable forestry in Malaysia (good practice)
 The Sahel (soil erosion)