A&O SCI 1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Hardiness Zone, Bark Beetle, Water Cycle
14 Nov 2016
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
An ecosystem is a community of living organism that interact with one another and with abiotic components in their environment. An ecosystem can be thought of as a system by which energy and nutrients flow and are recycled among the living and nonliving components. Each species in an ecosystem fulfills one of 3 roles in the flow: producer, consumer, and decomposer. A simple way to visualize an ecosystem is with a pyramid representing the food chain. A more detailed way to visualize an ecosystem is with a diagram of its food web, which shows the interrelationships among species. It"s easy to imagine how taking a species out could affect the rest of the species in the food web. Ecosystems with higher biological diversity are more resilient. Multiple species play each role so if one species is challenged another can pick up the slack. Less diverse ecosystems are more sensitive to disruption.
