Ecosystem

An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving, physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water, and sunlight.It is all the organisms in a given area, along with the nonliving (abiotic) factors with which they interact; a biological community and its physical environment.


The entire array of organisms inhabiting a particular ecosystem is called a community. In a typical ecosystem, plants and other photosynthetic organisms are the producers that provide the food. Ecosystems can be permanent or temporary. Ecosystems usually form a number of food webs.
Ecosystems are functional units consisting of living things in a given area, non-living chemical and physical factors of their environment, linked together through nutrient cycle and energy flow.^{[citation needed]}

1. Natural
   1. Terrestrial ecosystem
   2. Aquatic ecosystem
      1. Lentic, the ecosystem of a lake, pond or swamp.
      2. Lotic, the ecosystem of a river, stream or spring.
2. Artificial, ecosystems created by humans.

Central to the ecosystem concept is the idea that living organisms interact with every other element in their local environment. Eugene Odum, a founder of ecology, stated: "Any unit that includes all of the organisms (ie: the "community") in a given area interacting with the physical environment so that a flow of energy leads to clearly defined trophic structure, biotic diversity, and material cycles (i.e.: exchange of materials between living and nonliving parts) within the system is an ecosystem.^"