The ecosystem has four major components structure: those are –
a) Abiotic components
b) Producers
c) Consumers
d) Decomposers.
What is the structure of ecosystem?
The structure of ecosystem is generally a description of an environment’s organisms and physical features. This includes the amount and distribution of energy in the environment. Now let you have some very easy discussion about the structure of ecosystem in brief:
a) Abiotic components: abiotic components are the inorganic and organic components present in the air, water and soil, either they remain in the abiotic phase or they are absorbed by plants and thus entered the biotic phase. The biotic organism after their death and decay they are returned back to the nature.
Structure of Ecosystem
b) Producers: producers include all the autotrophic organisms, which can prepare their own food using the carbon dioxide, water and mineral salts from the atmosphere. These structure of ecosystem include the following organisms:
i) Photosynthetic bacteria: These types of bacteria have chlorophyll and can prepare food with the help of solar energy, such as green sulphur bacteria.
ii) Chemo-synthetic bacteria: These types of bacteria are devoid of chlorophyll but can prepare their food by the oxidation of inorganic search tenses like ammonia, nitrates or ferrous carbonate et cetera.
iii) Phytoplankton: the floating green plants which may be microscopic like the green algae Volvox or microscopic like Lemna and they are major producers of all aquatic structure of ecosystem.
iv) Land Plants: land plans include all the herbs, shrubs and trees and provide energy for the running of all terrestrial structure of ecosystem.
c) Consumers: The consumers are heterotrophic organisms cannot prepare their own food, but depend on the producers for their nourishment. There are different types of consumers depending upon their feeding habits and they may be defined as follows: –
i) Primary consumers: primary consumers also called the first-order consumers which are herbivores and directly feed on green plants. They include zooplanktons like protozoa, Daphnia, Benthonic or bottom feeders like snails, Arthropods, insects like grasshoppers, birds and mammals like rabbit, dear, cow etc.
ii) Secondary consumers: these are also known second-order consumers which animals feed on primary consumers. They include the frogs and fishes in grassland and pond ecosystem. Wolves, Tigers, moles can also serve as secondary consumers in terrestrial structure of ecosystem.
iii) Tertiary consumers: they the third- order consumers are upper graded consumers which feed on secondary consumers. They are the upper graded consumers in an ecosystem, snakes in grassland to assist them are Tertiary consumers barred the peacocks form the final consumers which consumes the snakes. Sharks form the Tertiary consumers in ocean ecosystem, Eagles can also serve as Tertiary consumers in terrestrial ecosystems.
d) Decomposers: the heterotrophic organisms like fungi and bacteria, which breakdown complex organic macromolecules of dead organisms to comparatively simpler substances are called as decomposers. They convert complex organic substances to simply organic forms and hence they are also called Micro-consumers or reducers. The simpler substances can also be absorbed by the microorganisms and they produce secondary metabolites like vitamins and antibiotic and they are called as ectocrines.
What are the functions of decomposers?
Following are the main functions of the decomposers: –
1) Production of food.
2) Recycling of nutrients by mineralization dead organic tissues.
3) Production of the ectocrine materials.
So, in this way in the structure of ecosystem the producers, consumers and decomposers are considered as they are functional kingdoms of nature, which interact closely with the abiotic factors.