Question

How are the flow of nutrients and energy through an ecosystem different?

Answer 1

Hint: In an ecosystem, energy and nutrients are passed through the food chain, and both the flow of energy and nutrients helps define the structure of the ecosystem and maintain ecological balance.

Complete answer:
In ecology, energy flow which is also known as a caloric flow which refers to the flow of energy through the food chain, and this general energy flow follows by solar energy. This energy flow is important in the ecosystem for the maintenance of ecological balance. The nutrient cycle is a flow or movement and exchange of organic and inorganic matter back into the production of matter.
Chemical nutrients and energy tend to flow in the same direction for most of an ecosystem, but the main difference is that the nutrient cycle is recycled in the ecosystem while the energy flow is ultimately lost from the ecosystem to the universe at large.
In the ecosystem, energy comes from the sun. This sunlight is converted into food by plants via photosynthesis, and the scientific term for this is autotroph. Sun energy from then becomes chemical energy in the form of food. Primary consumers of the food chain eat the plants for energy requirements. Energy moves up the levels of the food chain as the larger animal eats the smaller animal, and much of this energy is lost as work done by the animal's bodies and as heat (body heat) and which cannot be recycled.
Chemical nutrients follow the same path in the beginning. Plants take nutrients from the soil and chemically combine them with the water and carbon dioxide from the air to prepare the food. These chemical nutrients are then passed to animals and along the food chain as animals eat each other. Whereas, chemicals from the food are passed back to the soil as animals excrete out waste and also from the decomposing bodies when they die. Decomposers like bacteria, fungi break down the organic matter from animals for food, releasing the chemical back into the soil or the atmosphere. These chemical nutrients are then ready to be reused by plants to prepare food and start the cycle all over again.

Note: A nutrient cycle is also termed as ecological recycling and it is a cyclic pathway that can be reused whereas energy flow is a unidirectional and non-cyclic pathway and cannot be recycled.