Ecosystem cycles
About this app
A forest diorama with a lake, flows of matter as light bands: remove a species and follow the cascade, drag carbon and nitrogen through the web, and see the energy pyramid lose energy at each level. Matter comes back, energy leaves as heat.
With explain mode: an AI tutor walks you through the app, points out what matters in the scene and answers your questions.
Matter cycles, energy flows through
In an ecosystem, carbon and nitrogen move from the air or soil through producers and consumers. Decomposers break down dead material and release the matter again. Energy behaves differently: it comes in as light, passes from level to level and leaves the system as heat. Organisms cannot use heat as an energy source, so every ecosystem constantly needs new light.
What the app shows
A forest diorama with a lake and cut-open soil shows a simplified food web of eleven groups. Light bands reveal who eats whom and where matter goes. In the energy flow the bands thin from level to level, heat plumes rise and an energy pyramid shows the balance. All numbers are model values, and the 10 % rule is a rule of thumb.
What you try out
You remove a species and follow the cascade over 30 model years. You drag a carbon or nitrogen atom from place to place until the cycle closes, and wrong moves come with a reason. The same gesture with an energy portion ends in heat. Six questions with reasons check what you have learned.
Frequently asked questions
- Why is there a cycle of matter but no energy cycle?
- Atoms are conserved and decomposers release them again. Every conversion turns part of the energy into heat, and organisms cannot use heat as an energy source. New energy must therefore keep arriving as light.
- What is the 10 % rule?
- As a rule of thumb, about 10 % of the energy of one trophic level reaches the next. Real values vary widely. The rest is lost through respiration, faeces and dead material and ends up as heat.
- What do decomposers do in the nitrogen cycle?
- They break down organic material and release ammonium (ammonification). Nitrifying bacteria turn it into nitrate, which plants take up. Denitrifiers return nitrate to N₂ in oxygen-poor soil.
- Does the app show real measurements?
- No. Populations are index values of an imagined mixed forest and energy values are round model numbers. The app shows relationships, not a forecast for a real forest.
Subject: Biology (Gymnasium)
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