Ecosystem Essay Introduction

While ecosystems may be bound and individually discussed, they do not exist independently, but interact in a complex web.

Tags: Middle School Research Paper ExamplesSimple Fax Cover LetterRichard Cory By Edwin Arlington Robinson EssayThesis Progress Report UnswEssays On Oil DrillingKorean American EssayHot Water Heater Problem Solving

And the seemingly endless networks of links and interactions that give geographical breadth to an ecosystem.

Of course, an ecologist could study just the organisms, activities, and biotic/abiotic interactions within the local "soil ecosystem", treating mouse and eagle excrement as we described the sun above: external, but providing important input of energy and material to the soil ecosystem.

The species present provide ways of considering their contribution to ecosystem structure.

For examples: we could describe the number of species (species richness), or the number (or biomass) of individuals of each species (species diversity), or their distribution across the physical space of the ecosystem.

Thus, the "ecosystem" of our field mouse includes plants, and soil, and soil organisms—and of course other field mice to insure that mice will always be a part of that ecosystem.

And perhaps present are Bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus), dependent upon trees for nesting and roosting and a stream for water (and fish as an alternative food), feeding upon Field mice, recycling those that are caught into baby Bald eagles and droppings that are food for the plants and earthworms.An ecosystem can be described simply as the collection of all living and non-living components in a particular area.The living components of the environment are known as biotic factors.Consider first an ecosystem from a structural perspective: an ecosystem consists of living (biotic) and non-living (abiotic) components.Living components include populations of organisms and the living resources they use.Because virtually no surface on the Earth is free of human contact, all ecosystems can be accurately classified as human ecosystems. Some ecosystems may be very diverse with many plants and animals; whereas other ecosystems may be less diverse with fewer animals and plants.For example, tropical rain forests could be classified as an ecosystem that has high diversity; whereas temperate rain forests could be classified as an ecosystem that has lower diversity as compared to tropical rain forests.Non-living components include non-living resources, such as space, and the non-living physical characteristics of habitats that differ by location, such as elevation, temperature, and humidity.We know and can observe that the organisms living in almost any ecosystem are not all identical individuals, but can be categorized into species (discussed previously in Chapter 9); and each species has a unique set of morphological, physiological, and behavioral attributes (see Chapter 3) that will determine how each individual functions within the whole.Abiotic factors include things such as rocks,water,soil,light,rocks etc...The idea of the ecosystem relates to the idea that all organisms in the environment are engaged in relationships with every other aspect (like resources and other organisms) in that environment.