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Nutrient recycling
Jin Young Huh
IB Biology I
Ecosystems, Ecologists and
Ecology

Abiotic environment
– Non-living surroundings of a community

Ecosystem
– A community and its abiotic environment

Ecologists
– Study the complex relationships within
ecosystems

Ecology
– The study of relationships in ecosystemsboth relationships between organisms and
between organisms and their environment
Nutrient recycling in ecosystems
 Interactions
between living
organisms and the abiotic
environment in an ecosystem
 Energy is not
recycled
 light food chain
 heat
Nutrient recycling in ecosystems
Nutrients
must be used again
and again by recycling.
Carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus
and all the other essential
elements must be recycled.
Environment living
organisms  environment
The carbon cycle
The nitrogen cycle
Saprotrophs
 Organism
that feeds on the
excrement or the dead bodies or
tissues of others.
– Most fungi
– Many bacteria and protozoa
– Animals such as dung beetles and
vultures
– A few unusual plants
 Heterotroph
The role of saprotrophs in
recycling of nutrients

Saprotrophic bacteria and fungi
– Feed by secreting digestive enzymes
into dead organic matter
1. Enzymes gradually break down the
organic matter and the nutrients that
were locked up in complex organic
compounds are released
2. The saprotrophs absorb the substances
that they need from the digested
organic matter