What is ecosystem

Ecosystems can be classified into three main scales. Micro: A small scale ecosystem such as a pond, puddle, tree trunk, under a rock etc. Messo: A medium scale ecosystem such as a forest or a large lake. Biome: A very large ecosystem or collection of ecosystems with similar biotic and abiotic factors such as an entire Rainforest with millions of animals and trees, with many different water bodies running through them.

The Australian Museum respects and acknowledges the Gadigal people as the First Peoples and Traditional Custodians of the land and waterways on which the Museum stands. Image credit: gadigal yilimung shield made by Uncle Charles Chicka Madden. This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more. The word ecosystem means ecological systems. Ecology is the study of ecosystems An ecosystem includes all the living things plants, animals and organisms in a given area, interacting with each other, and with their non-living environments weather, earth, sun, soil, climate, atmosphere.

Sir Arthur George Tansley — was an English botanist who introduced the concept of the ecosystem into biology Ernst Heinrich Philipp August — was a German biologist, naturalist philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist, and artist who discovered, described and named thousands of new species mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms invented many words commonly used by biologists today, such as phylum, phylogeny, and ecology.

The tallgrass prairie of the Great Plains supported bison herd s, which tribes followed throughout the year.

As human populations have grown, however, people have overtaken many ecosystems. The tallgrass prairie of the Great Plains, for instance, became farmland. As the ecosystem shrunk, fewer bison could survive. Today, a few herds survive in protected ecosystems such as Yellowstone National Park. In the tropical rain forest ecosystems surrounding the Amazon River in South America, a similar situation is taking place. The Amazon rain forest includes hundreds of ecosystems, including canopies, understories, and forest floors.

These ecosystems support vast food web s. Canopies are ecosystems at the top of the rainforest, where tall, thin trees such as fig s grow in search of sunlight. Canopy ecosystems also include other plants, called epiphyte s, which grow directly on branches.

Understory ecosystems exist under the canopy. They are darker and more humid than canopies. Animals such as monkey s live in understory ecosystems, eating fruits from trees as well as smaller animals like beetles.

Forest floor ecosystems support a wide variety of flower s, which are fed on by insect s like butterflies.

Butterflies, in turn, provide food for animals such as spider s in forest floor ecosystems. Human activity threatens all these rain forest ecosystems in the Amazon. Thousands of acres of land are cleared for farmland, housing, and industry. Countries of the Amazon rain forest, such as Brazil, Venezuela, and Ecuador, are underdeveloped. Cutting down trees to make room for crop s such as soy and corn benefits many poor farmers. These resource s give them a reliable source of income and food. Children may be able to attend school, and families are able to afford better health care.

However, the destruction of rain forest ecosystems has its costs. Many modern medicine s have been developed from rain forest plants. Forest s, ponds, reef s, and tundra are all types of biomes, for example. They're organized very generally, based on the types of plants and animals that live in them.

Within each forest, each pond, each reef, or each section of tundra, you'll find many different ecosystems. The biome of the Sahara Desert , for instance, includes a wide variety of ecosystems. The arid climate and hot weather characterize the biome. Within the Sahara are oasis ecosystems, which have date palm trees, freshwater , and animals such as crocodile s. The Sahara also has dune ecosystems, with the changing landscape determine d by the wind.

Organisms in these ecosystems, such as snakes or scorpions, must be able to survive in sand dunes for long periods of time. The Sahara even includes a marine environment, where the Atlantic Ocean creates cool fog s on the Northwest African coast. Shrub s and animals that feed on small trees, such as goats, live in this Sahara ecosystem.

Even similar-sounding biomes could have completely different ecosystems. The biome of the Sahara Desert, for instance, is very different from the biome of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia and China. The Gobi is a cold desert , with frequent snowfall and freezing temperatures. Unlike the Sahara, the Gobi has ecosystems based not in sand, but kilometers of bare rock. Some grass es are able to grow in the cold, dry climate. As a result, these Gobi ecosystems have grazing animal s such as gazelle s and even takhi , an endangered species of wild horse.

Even the cold desert ecosystems of the Gobi are distinct from the freezing desert ecosystems of Antarctica. Antarcticas thick ice sheet covers a continent made almost entirely of dry, bare rock.

Only a few moss es grow in this desert ecosystem, supporting only a few birds, such as skua s. Threats to Ecosystems For thousands of years, people have interacted with ecosystems.

Many cultures developed around nearby ecosystems. Many Native American tribes of North Americas Great Plains developed a complex lifestyle based on the native plants and animals of plain s ecosystems, for instance. Bison , a large grazing animal native to the Great Plains, became the most important biotic factor in many Plains Indians cultures, such as the Lakota or Kiowa. Bison are sometimes mistakenly called buffalo. These tribes used buffalo hide s for shelter and clothing, buffalo meat for food, and buffalo horn for tools.

The tallgrass prairie of the Great Plains supported bison herd s, which tribes followed throughout the year. As human populations have grown, however, people have overtaken many ecosystems. The tallgrass prairie of the Great Plains, for instance, became farmland. As the ecosystem shrunk, fewer bison could survive.

Today, a few herds survive in protected ecosystems such as Yellowstone National Park. In the tropical rain forest ecosystems surrounding the Amazon River in South America, a similar situation is taking place. The Amazon rain forest includes hundreds of ecosystems, including canopies, understories, and forest floors.

These ecosystems support vast food web s. Canopies are ecosystems at the top of the rainforest, where tall, thin trees such as fig s grow in search of sunlight. Canopy ecosystems also include other plants, called epiphyte s, which grow directly on branches. Understory ecosystems exist under the canopy. They are darker and more humid than canopies. Animals such as monkey s live in understory ecosystems, eating fruits from trees as well as smaller animals like beetles. Forest floor ecosystems support a wide variety of flower s, which are fed on by insect s like butterflies.

Butterflies, in turn, provide food for animals such as spider s in forest floor ecosystems. Human activity threatens all these rain forest ecosystems in the Amazon. Thousands of acres of land are cleared for farmland, housing, and industry. Countries of the Amazon rain forest, such as Brazil, Venezuela, and Ecuador, are underdeveloped.

Cutting down trees to make room for crop s such as soy and corn benefits many poor farmers. These resource s give them a reliable source of income and food. Children may be able to attend school, and families are able to afford better health care.

However, the destruction of rain forest ecosystems has its costs. Many modern medicine s have been developed from rain forest plants. For this, it is crucial that companies develop sustainability and CSR strategies — that they assess their impact and act upon it. Governments need to create better regulations to encourage companies to follow this path, while at the same time, find ways to measure and include the natural capital in the most famous way not necessarily a good or fair one of accessing progress: GDP.

Log in and interact with engaging content: show how they matter to you, share your experience First Name. Last Name. Simple Ecosystem Definition The simplest definition of an ecosystem is that it is a community or group of living organisms that live in and interact with each other in a specific environment.

Ecosystem Scientific Definition An ecosystem is the basic unit of the field of the scientific study of nature. According to this discipline, an ecosystem is a physically defined environment, made up of two inseparable components: The biotope abiotic : a particular physical environment with specific physical characteristics such as the climate, temperature, humidity, concentration of nutrients or pH.

The biocenosis biotic : a set of living organisms such as animals, plants or micro-organisms, that are in constant interaction and are, therefore, in a situation of interdependence. Together with freshwater ecosystems, marine ecosystems are also part of the broader category of aquatic ecosystems. Some examples of marine ecosystems are offshore systems like the ocean surface, the deep sea, pelagic oceans or the seafloor. But there are also nearshore systems like coral reefs, mangroves or seagrass meadows.

Marine ecosystems can too be characterized following the abiotic and biotic dimensions mentioned above. In this way, its biotic components are organisms and their species, predators, parasites, and competitors.

On the contrary, the concentration of nutrients, the temperature, sunlight, turbulence, salinity and density are its abiotic components.

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