Ecosystem
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An ecosystem is a biological environment consisting of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving, physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water and sunlight.[1] It is all the organisms in a given area, along with the nonliving (abiotic) factors with which they interact; a biological community and its physical environment
Abiotic components are such physical and chemical factors of an ecosystem as light, temperature, atmosphere gases(nitrogen, oxygen, carbon dioxide are the most important), water, wind, soil. These specific abiotic factors represent the geological, geographical, hydrological and climatological features of a particular ecosystem. Separately:
* Water, which is at the same time an essential element to life and a milieu
* Air, which provides oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon dioxide to living species and allows the dissemination of pollen and spores
* Soil, at the same time source of nutriment and physical support. The salinity, nitrogen and phosphorus content, ability to retain water, and density are all influential.
* Temperature, which should not exceed certain extremes, even if tolerance to heat is significant for some species
* Light, which provides energy to the ecosystem through photosynthesis
* Natural disasters can also be considered abiotic. According to the intermediate disturbance hypothesis, a moderate amount of disturbance does good to increase the biodiversity.
( 2 ) – Biotic Components
The living organisms are the biotic components of an ecosystem. In ecosystems, living things are classified after the way they get their food.
Biotic Components include the following —
Autotrophs produce their own organic nutrients for themselves and other members of the community; therefore, they are called the producers. There are basically two kinds of autotrophs, “chemoautotrophs and photoautogrophs. ”
Chemautotrophs are bacteria that obtain energy by oxidizing inorganic compounds such as ammonia, nitrites, and sulfides , and they use this energy to synthesize carbohydrates.
Photoautotrophs are photosynthesizers such as algae and green plants that produce most of the organic nutrients for the biosphere.
Heterotrophs, as consumers that are unable to produce, are constantly looking for source of organic nutrients from elsewhere. Herbivores like giraffe are animals that graze directly on plants or algae. Carnivores as wolf feed on other animals;