What is an ecosystem?

To answer the question – What is an ecosystem? - fully, one would need an entire book. Don't worry, this page isn't as long as a book ... but it will give you a brief but comprehensive answer to this question.

An ecosystem is one of the most fascinating concepts to study. It is lumped into the biological (life) sciences but geography also plays a major role in its definition.

“Ecosystem” (eco - to do with environment and nature, system – something that works together to perform a function) is the term used to describe the interactions of living things in a particular habitat or area. The living things include everything from bacteria to plants, insects, animals and birds. The interactions between these organisms include: how they live together, how they rely on each other for survival (which includes eating each other), how they rely on each other to provide shelter and protection and why if you remove one organism, all the other organisms in that ecosystem are in danger. Included in the ecosystem term are concepts such as food chains, food webs, energy flow (not as in: “Hey, I can like feel the bad energy flow coming from you ”, but what happens to the energy in food as one thing eats another).

Not only does “ecosystem” cover the living things (also known as the biotic components), but also includes abiotic (non-living) components. This is where the geography comes into it. The sun, soil, water, air, climate etc. all play a role in an ecosystem. These are responsible for creating a particular habitat, in which you will find different biotic components. For example, in the very wet habitat of the ocean you will find marine animals such as fish, krill and whales. Whereas in the very dry habitat of the Sahara desert you will find snakes, lizards, some birds and every now and again some camels. Very different ecosystems, with very different life forms...

Sounds complicated? Well, not really. What is an ecosystem? It can be summed up in one word – balance.

Everything works together to create an amazing balance so that everything exists in harmony. Yup, Mufasa from the Lion King knew about ecosystems – guess that's why he was king. Scar, on the other hand, did not know – watch the movie to see how the kingdom ended up under his rule. By the way, the only living thing that does not work in harmony with its ecosystem (apart from Scar in the Lion King) is – man!