The first law of thermodynamics is the same as the law energy conservation. The rules of this law include that energy is transferable from one system to another in various status. Another rule of this law is that energy is not destroyable and nobody who have the capability of creating it.
Another rule of this law is that the entire amount of energy available in the space is constant . The second law of thermodynamics also has some rules. For instance, heat cannot be transmitted from a cool to a hot object. Depending on this rule, there must be some natural processes to transmit energy towards one direction.
The natural processes to be involved should be irrevocable. Through the applications of the second law of thermodynamics, some things in the space are becoming less important such as the energy and other substances.
For life to exist in the rainforest ecosystem, energy is moved from one living form to another. Energy is transmitted in the ecosystem from one tropic point to the other. In most cases, the energy pyramid in an ecosystem is similar to the food pyramid. The population of the organisms in a certain point depends on the level of the energy pyramid.
The lower the level of the energy pyramid, the higher the number of the organisms. In the circumstances of a rainforest ecosystem, the primary producers occupy the bottom of the energy pyramid. The major source of energy in the space is the sun that provides solar energy.
In the rainforest ecosystem, through the energy from the sun, primary producers manufacture carbohydrates through the process of photosynthesis. The raw materials used in the process of photosynthesis are mainly water and carbon dioxide, to manufacture food for the plants.
The primary producers in the rainforest ecosystems are the green plants both big and small. The main primary consumers that depend solely on the work of the primary producers for food are the animals that feed on green vegetations for instance, cows, grasshoppers etc.
In the rainforest ecosystem, both the secondary and the tertiary consumers are mainly found in the third and the fourth trophic levels. Secondary consumers include frogs and lizards, while tertiary consumers are fresh eaters like leopards that feed on secondary consumers.
The transmission of energy from one level to the other is not always 100% as the biggest percentage of energy is lost through the heat. The last groups of organisms that exist in the rainforest ecosystem are the detritivores, which feed on dead and decayed living and non-living things. Their main great role within the ecosystem is to clean up the environment.
In the rainforest ecosystem, the major nutrients are stored in the growing vegetation, dead plants, and in the decaying matters. During the time when the organic matters are decaying, after the decomposition the nutrients are recycled so fast and very few of them are left in the soil .
The presence of the decomposers in the soil like bacteria and fungi makes the process of decomposing matters so fast.
The living organisms absorb the nutrients quickly when organisms die and decompose. In the rainforest ecosystem, when vegetables and plants die, they decay and decompose so fast, and the nutrients obtained after decomposition are broken down and immediately absorbed by the living plants and the cycle continues. Decayed legumes and other plants remains constitute 40 teragrams of nitrogen in the soil.
Several human activities have interfered with the nutrient cycles. Some of the activities include fossil fuels combustion, and application of artificial fertilizers in the soil. Apart from the natural ways of enriching the soil, human beings have tried to use other means of doing the same. Human beings have also gotten involved in burning the bushes, an act that violates the nutrient cycle completely as it kills the decomposers and other living organisms.
Reference
Gordon, D., & Murphy, K. (2007). Ecosystems. New York: Routledge.