What is the community of living and nonliving things that interact with each other?

Ecosystems -- biological communities -- include living organisms like animals, plants, insects and bacteria, as well as nonliving components like rocks, soil, water and sunlight. Survival of the living organisms in an ecosystem depends upon their adaptability to both the living and nonliving elements within its community.

Biological Communities

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As a functional unit of nature that includes the community of organisms that grow, reproduce, feed and interact, an ecosystem also includes the nonliving elements of the environment. An ecosystem describes a single environmental and ecological unit or community, whereas a biome, by contrast, tends to be regional and often has several distinct ecosystems within it. An aquatic ocean biome consists of numerous ecosystems like tidal pools, coral reefs and kelp forests.

Living Things in an Ecosystem

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The living creatures in a biological community include microscopic living organisms to all classes and sizes of animals. In a pond, for example, living organisms range in size from the algae and zooplankton in a drop of pond water to the larger fish, amphibians, lilies and cattails that make their homes in the pond. All the different populations of species co-existing and thriving within that same environment define the inhabitants of an ecosystem. The resilience of the community hinges on a cycle -- or chain of events and processes -- that creates food and energy for all the organisms within the community. The ecosystem’s cycle encompasses the producers, consumers and decomposers who cycle energy through the food web so that there is constant productivity, decomposition and nutrient cycling.

Rocks, Dirt, Sunlight and Water

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The nonliving things in an ecosystem create and define the ecosystem's environment and include sunlight, temperature, precipitation, weather, landscape, soil chemistry, water chemistry and even base nutrient supply. These abiotic components -- nonliving -- remain vital to the ecosystem’s health because they are keystones in its energy flow and nutrient cycle.

Energy from sunlight is transformed into chemical energy through photosynthesis by plants, which define the base producers in most ecosystems. Essential nutrients and elements -- such as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen -- that are necessary for the biochemical processes of life are obtained from the surrounding atmosphere, soil, water and the physical environment. Energy and elements are endlessly cycled within the ecosystem because of the interaction between its biotic or living and abiotic, non-living elements.

Biotic and Abiotic Relationships

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The biotic and abiotic elements of an ecosystem interact in cycles defined by daily life, time and the seasons. Nonliving factors determine what living things can be supported in an ecosystem. The living creatures in a habitat affect the nonliving elements within the community. For example, plants can affect soil chemistry or certain algae can influence water chemistry. An ideal ecosystem remains naturally balanced among its parts, both biotic and abiotic, so that energy flow and nutrient cycling stay stable enough for all organisms to reproduce and thrive. Any disruption to the ecosystem -- like the removal or addition of an abiotic or biotic factor -- often impacts numerous aspects of the community's organization. Introducing an invasive species or a toxic pollutant can throw the ecosystem's structural organization off-kilter, often with domino-like effects.

The biosphere is the area of Earth where living things exist. The biosphere is divided into regions known as biomes. In general, biomes are areas with a particular type of climate and similar plant and animal species. Biomes can be further subdivided into dynamic, interrelated systems of plants and animals, nonliving matter, and the energy of the system. These are called ecosystems. Ecosystems vary in size. They can be as small as a puddle or as large as Earth itself. Any group of living and nonliving things interacting with each other can be considered as an ecosystem.

Within each ecosystem, there are habitats which may also vary in size. A habitat is a place where plants and animals normally live. Some habitats have lots of plants and animals, some do not. Some habitats are near water, some are on top of mountains. Each habitat has a different mixture of species living there. A habitat is the place where a population lives. A population is a group of living organisms of the same kind living in the same place at the same time. All of the plant and animal populations living in a habitat interact and form a community.

The community of living (biotic) things interacts with the nonliving (abiotic) world around it to form the ecosystem. The habitat must supply the needs of organisms, such as food, water, air, and space to grow. If the population’s needs are not met, it will move to a better habitat or die.

No organism on Earth is an isolated individual. Every form of life is part of an ecosystem. In reality, the entire planet is one ecosystem. The study of ecosystems is a branch of biology known as ecology.

A change and/or interruption of an interrelationship in an ecosystem can cause large-scale changes in the ecosystem. Human actions or their results are often the cause of these changes. (Source: South Brunswick Public Schools, Science Curriculum: Eat or Be Eaten, NJ, 2008.)

What is a group of living and non living things working together?

When living and nonliving factors live together and interact it is called?