2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 00:21
The concept of an ecosystem is usually applied to natural objects of varying complexity and size: taiga or a small forest, an ocean or a small pond. Complexly balanced natural processes function in them. There are also biological systems created artificially. An example is the aquarium ecosystem, in which the necessary balance is maintained by humans.
Types of ecosystems and their features
An ecosystem is a collection of living organisms of various species in a certain area of the biosphere, which are connected not only with each other, but also with the components of inanimate nature by the circulation of substances and energy conversion. It can be natural or artificial.
Natural ecosystems (forests, steppes, savannas, lakes, seas and others) are a self-regulating structure. Artificial ecosystems (agrocenosis, aquariums and others) are created and maintained by man.
Structureecosystems
In ecology, the ecosystem is the main functional unit. It includes inanimate environment and organisms as components mutually influencing each other's properties. Its structure, regardless of the type, whether it is a natural reservoir ecosystem or an aquarium ecosystem, includes the following components:
- Spatial - the placement of organisms in a particular biological system.
- Species - the number of living species and the ratio of their abundance.
- Community components: abiotic (inanimate nature) and biotic (organisms - consumers, producers and destroyers).
- The cycle of matter and energy is an important condition for the existence of an ecosystem.
- The sustainability of an ecosystem, depending on the number of species living in it and the length of food chains formed.
Consider an example of one of the biological systems - an aquarium. Its artificial ecosystem includes all structural units. An aquarium of a certain size (spatial distribution) is inhabited by a living component of the system (fish, plants, microorganisms). Its components are also water, soil, driftwood. An aquarium is a closed ecosystem, therefore, conditions close to natural are artificially created for its inhabitants. Why is lighting used, since nothing living can fully develop and live without light; thermoregulation - to maintain a constant temperature level; aeration and filtration - to supply oxygen to the water and constantly clean it.
Ecosystem differences
At first glanceit may seem that the aquarium ecosystem is not much different from a natural reservoir. After all, the aquarium itself is a kind of small copy of a closed reservoir intended for keeping and breeding fish and plants. Life in it proceeds according to similar biological processes. Only the aquarium is a small artificial ecosystem. In it, the degree of impact of abiotic components (temperature, light, water hardness, pH, and others) on biotic components is balanced by a person. It also supports all the necessary vital activity in the aquarium, the duration of which largely depends on the experience of the aquarist, his ability to control the balance of the environment. However, even with proper care, it periodically falls into decay, and a person will have to patiently arrange it again in a room pond. Why is this happening?
Causal factors
The aquarium ecosystem depends on the age of its aquatic environment. It goes through the stages of formation, youth, maturity and degradation. Few plants survive the imbalance in the ecosystem, and fish stop breeding.
The size of the aquarium also plays a significant role. The life expectancy of the environment directly depends on its volume. It is like an ecosystem in nature. It is known that the larger the volume of the reservoir, the greater its resistance to violations of the necessary balance. In an aquarium up to 200 liters, it is not difficult to form a habitat close to natural, but it is much more difficult to disturb the balance in it with your inept actions.
Aquariums of small capacity up to 30-40 liters require regular water changes. Within reasonable limits, changing it to 1/3-1/5 can shake the equilibrium stability, but the environment recovers on its own in a couple of days, but if all the water is replaced, the established balance can easily be upset.
Aquarist should know that once an ecosystem has been formed, it must be kept in balance with minimal intervention.
Ecological system model
Aquarium is a small artificial ecosystem, the structure of which differs little from the natural one. The components of an ecosystem are a biotope and a biocenosis. In an aquarium, the inorganic nature (biotope) is water, soil, and their properties. It also includes the volume of space of the aquatic environment, its mobility, temperature, illumination and other parameters. The necessary properties of the habitat are created and maintained by man. He feeds the inhabitants of the aquarium, takes care of the purity of the soil and water. Thus, it creates only a model of the ecosystem. In nature, it is closed and independent.
Abiotic factors
Natural totality is distinguished by much deeper interconnections and interdependencies. In the home pond, they are regulated by man. Conventionally, in a domestic pond, all living organisms are called an aquarium biocenosis. They occupy certain ecological niches in it, creating the harmony of the habitat. Favorable conditions for life are created for them, taking into account abiotic factors - appropriate temperature, lighting and water movement.
The temperature regime depends on the inhabitants of the aquarium. Since even slight fluctuations can lead to the death of some fish species, it is recommended to use heaters with a built-in thermostat.
Lighting mode is necessary for the normal functioning of all components of the aquarium environment. Light sources are usually located above the surface of the water. The length of daylight should correspond to the photoperiod of the inhabitants in their natural life conditions.
In nature, standing water is more mobile due to the effects of rain, wind and other disturbances. Aquariums require constant water circulation. It is achieved by aerating or running water through a filter.
Constant circulation ensures the vertical rotation of the water in the aquarium. It also equalizes the acidity index, prevents a rapid decrease in the redox potential in the bottom layers.
Organic and inorganic compounds
Water, oxygen, carbon dioxide, amino acids, nitrogen and phosphorus s alts, humic acids are the main organic and inorganic compounds, which also belong to abiotic elements. Most of them are contained in the aquarium organisms themselves and in bottom sediments.
The rate of transition of these nutrients into an aqueous solution is ensured as a result of the functioning of producers and decomposers of the ecosystem. Organic nitrogen-containing excretions utilize bacteria, turning them into simpler substances necessary for plant uptake. Organic compounds are converted tomineral (inorganic) form also due to different types of bacteria. These most important processes depend on the temperature regime of water, its acidity, oxygen saturation. They regulate the normal functioning of the ecosystem.
When creating a closed aquarium ecosystem, it is important to know that it is ready to receive its inhabitants, but is not completely balanced, since many important types of bacteria will stabilize within two weeks.
Ecosystem sustainability and aquarium cycling
Inhabitants of the aquarium cannot provide a complete cycle of substances. It reveals a chain break between consumers and producers. This is facilitated by the closed ecosystem of the aquarium. Shrimps, mollusks, crustaceans (consumers) eat plants (producers), but no one eats the consumers themselves. The chain is broken. At the same time, another fish food chain - bloodworms and other food - is artificially maintained by humans.
Creating the conditions for keeping the required number of daphnia and cyclops in the aquarium to feed the fish is quite difficult. Since these small crustaceans, in turn, also need food. The life of protozoa depends on the presence of organic matter in the aquarium. The number of ciliates should exceed the number of crustaceans, the latter, in turn, should be contained in a greater ratio to fish. Such balance in food chains is difficult to achieve in such spatial conditions as an indoor aquarium. Its ecosystem is not conducive to supporting quantitativeindicators of environmental factors at certain levels.
In natural ecosystems, each species is balanced by the ratio with other species. Each of them occupies its niche, determines the interdependence of species. The proportions of predators and their prey in the development of an ecosystem are strictly balanced. Such balancing cannot be achieved in such a closed space as an aquarium. An artificial ecosystem requires a competent selection of its inhabitants. The ecological niches of fish and plants should be conjugated, but not overlap. They are selected so that their vital needs and so-called "professions" (consumers, producers and destroyers) are not at the expense of others.
The balanced selection of inhabitants according to their "professional" purpose in the aquarium ecosystem model is the most important condition for its long-term he alth.
"Address" of the inhabitants of the aquarium
The habitat in the reservoir of each species is also of considerable importance. They all need to find a suitable home for themselves. You can not oversaturate the aquarium, so as not to lead to the degradation of other species. So, floating plants, growing, block the light of algae growing below, the lack of shelters on the bottom and habitats for bottom-dwelling fish species lead to skirmishes and to the death of weaker individuals.
It is also important to remember that all animals and plants are constantly changing, which, accordingly, cannot but affect their environment. It is necessary to monitor the behavior of the fish, do not overfeed them, take care of the plants, cut off their rotten areas, and keep them clean.soil.
To maintain the stability of the ecosystem in the aquarium, it is necessary, in any attempt to interfere, to think whether this will harm the balance.
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