Ecosystem defined

ECOSYSTEM

Ecosystem defined

• An ecosystem is a community of plants, animals and smaller organisms that live, feed, reproduce and interact in the same area or environment.
• An ecosystem is a community of living and nonliving things considered as a unit.
• Ecosystem is a complex set of relationships among the living resources, habitats and residents of an area. It includes plants, trees, animals, fishes, birds, micro-organisms, air, water, soil and people.

Ecosystem defined

• An ecosystem is a self regulating group of biotic communities of species interacting with one another and with their non-living environment exchanging energy and matter.
• Ecosystems are dynamic interactions between plants, animals, and microorganisms and their environment working together as a functional unit. Ecosystems will fail if they do not remain in balance.

Ecology

• Term Coined by Earnst Haeckel in 1869.
• Derived from greek words: OIKOS(Home)+LOGOS(Study)
• So, Ecology is the study of organisms in their natural home interacting with their surroundings.
• Ecology is the scientific study of the relationships that living organisms have with each other and with their natural environment.
• Ecology is the study of ecosystems.

Functions of ecosystem

• Habitat functions: ecosystems provide habitat to wild plants and animals and thus conserve biological and genetic diversity. It supports different food chains and food chains.
• Production function: production of wide range of goods ranging from food to raw materials.

Functions of ecosystem

• Regulatory functions: ecosystem regulates essential ecological processes and life support systems and renders stability. Responsible for cycling of nutrients between biotic and abiotic components(biogeochemical cycles). Also, it provides many services that have direct and indirect benefits to humans (i.e., clean air, water and soil). Soil formation, climate regulation, etc.
• Every ecosystem regulates and maintains itself and resists any stresses or disturbances upto a certain limit. This is known as cybernetic system.

Functions of ecosystem

• Informational function: ecosystems provide an essential 'reference function' and contribute to the maintenance of human health by providing opportunities for spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, recreation and aesthetic experience. 

Structure of Ecosystem

Biotic Components of Ecosystem

• Different living organisms constitute the biotic components of an ecosystem.
• This refers to large life-forms such as trees or mammals, small life-forms such as insects and algae, and microscopic life-forms such as bacteria.
• Biotic, meaning of or related to life, are living factors. Plants, animals, fungi and bacteria are all biotic or living factors.

Producers

• Most important components of ecosystem.
• Producers are organisms which are able to manufacture organic compounds from inorganic substances from their environment.
• Food is produced both for themselves and for other organisms.
• They depend directly on the abiotic component for their survival and production of nutrients.
• Producers are also known as autotrophs (derived from Greek words: “autos” meaning self and “trophe” meaning nourishment)
• They induce into the ecosystem, the energy required for its biological processes.