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• 1 media/Mouths_of_amazon_geocover_1990.png 2015-09-05T23:21:15-07:00 Unit 1: Macroscopic Ecosystem 31 image_header 177367 2015-10-01T05:31:48-07:00

  Ecosystems

  An ecosystem is network of relationships among and between biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving) things. Energy and nutrients cycle through the ecosystem. Ecosystems can be any size.
  
  "Ecosystem" can be broken down into "eco" and "system." Eco means habitat, or environmental. System means a group of interrelated parts working together. 
  
  Science communicator Emerald Robinson explains what an ecosystem is and why they are
  important in this video.
  

  Ecosystems Cycle Energy and Matter

  Ecosystems are very important to us because ecosystems cycle energy and matter. Energy is defined as the capacity to do work. Work can mean many things. Reading this text is work. Standing up is work. In fact, everything you do is work and requires energy. We get our energy from the food we eat, but how does food get that energy to begin with? 
  
  

  The ultimate source of energy is the Sun. The sun's rays hit Earth, and many organisms, like plants, are able to convert the sun's energy in to something called "chemical energy" for animals to use. In simple terms, that chemical energy is what we know as sugar. All animals use that energy to build other molecules in their body, such as proteins and fats. All animals use that energy to move around and do things. You will read more about the cycle of energy and matter on the Food Webs page.

  There are many kinds of ecosystems. 

  There are aquatic (water) ecosystems and terrestrial (land) ecosystems. These can be categorized further into different types of ecosystems:

  Aquatic ecosystems

  1. Marine
  2. Freshwater (lakes, rivers, wetlands)

  ​Terrestrial ecosystems

  1. Forest
  2. Littoral (The littoral zone is the part of a sea, lake, or river that is close to the shore.) 
  3. Riparian zone (the interface between land and a river, or stream.)
  4. Subsurface lithoautotrophic microbial ecosystem (the fungi and bacteria that live just beneath Earth's surface)
  5. Urban (cities, towns, etc. constructed by humans)
  6. Desert
  The ecosystem types we will talk about in class, and you may have heard of already, are:
  1. Desert
  2. Grassland
  3. Chaparral
  4. Tundra
  5. Forest
  6. Tropical rainforest
  7. Ocean

  There are many components (parts) to an ecosystem.
  
  For our class, we will focus on the following:

  1. biotic
  2. abiotic
  3. producer
  4. consumer
  5. predator
  6. prey
  You can click on each part to learn about them individually. Or move on to Food Webs.