“The ECOSYSTEM”

Lovely may A. Magdaong

B.S in tourism and management
1st year
Science and technology
(Term paper)
-jasmine zyra Erandio
INTRODUCTION:

An ecosystem consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they
interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles
and energy flows. Energy enters the system through photosynthesis and is incorporated into
plant tissue.

Ecosystem diversity addresses the combined characteristics of biotic properties

(biodiversity) and abiotic properties (geodiversity). It is the variation in the ecosystems
found in a region or the variation in ecosystems over the whole planet.

Ecosystems have no particular size. An ecosystem can be as large as a desert or as small as a

tree. The major parts of an ecosystem are: water, water temperature, plants, animals, air,
light and soil.

The living organisms in an ecosystem can be divided into three categories: producers,

consumers and decomposers. They are all important parts of an ecosystem. Producers are
the green plants.

The ecosystem is the structural and functional unit of ecology where the living organisms.
interact with each other and the surrounding environment. In other words, an ecosystem is
a. chain of interaction between organisms and their environment.

There are three broad categories of ecosystems based on their general environment:
freshwater, marine, and terrestrial.The World Ocean is the largest existing ecosystem on our
planet.

Environment refers to the surroundings, whereas, ecosystem is the interaction between the
environment and the living organisms. Environment is the area where living organisms live.
Ecosystem is the community where the biotic and abiotic elements interact with each other

Ecosystem structure is a network of interactions between abiotic and biotic components of

the system. The biotic structure of the ecosystem is characterized by the composition of the
biological community including species numbers, biomass, life-form, life-history and spatial
distribution of species.
BODY AND CONCLUSION:

Ecosystem diversity deals with the study of different ecosystems in a certain location and

their overall effects on humans and the environment as a whole. It is one of the types of
biodiversity along with species diversity, genetic diversity, and functional diversity.
Ecosystem diversity focuses on both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Also, it includes the
variation of a biological community such as the number of levels of ecosystem diversity and
different niches or habitat diversity, and other ecological processes. Ecosystem diversity has
a great deal on both genetic and species diversity, thus it is coined as the “largest scale of
biodiversity”. Grasslands, tundras, deserts, rainforests, terrestrial and marine ecosystems,
are some examples of ecosystems that are diverse and contribute a lot to creating a well-
balanced environment.

The wide variety of species that takes place in a specific region is known as its species
richness. It is defined as the species richness in any habitat and is the common currency of
the examination of biodiversity. Species richness index is a degree of the wide variety of
species in a described sampling unit Species richness is a characteristic of sample size.
However, it ought to now no longer be stressed with species abundance. Each natural
habitat has quite a few species, which range in their relative abundance. No community
includes species of identical abundance; a few species are rare, others are common and
nevertheless, others can be abundant. Species variety measures are frequently more
comprehensive and informative than species counts alone. There’s the significance of taking
an organism’s eye view of community variations”. This remark applies to structural diversity
as it’s far from species composition.Resource diversity means the variety of resources that
an organism (species) utilizes. For example, a few fish species withinside the hill-streams
have an extensive trophic niche and depend upon zooplankton, bugs, and algae, and
diatoms for their meals. In many instances, food sources fed on by an organism differ during
specific levels of the life cycle, consisting of fry, fingerling, and adult degrees in the case of
fish. Thus, niche width is the measure of the variety of resources used by a species.

It is the quantity of habitat classification in a defined geographical location. This is an index,

which quantifies the structural complexity of the habitat. This structural complexity of the
environment, in turn, is responsible for the presence of an extensive type of spatial and
trophic niches. This means that if any habitat helps extra microhabitats, its biological
diversity may be greater compared to a habitat that has a much less wide variety of
microhabitats. More research on habitat diversity had been made for terrestrial
environments.The diversity of the ecosystems in a particular geographical location may be
identified and studied so as to understand their overall impact on human existence and the
environment. It can be dealt with at a micro-level (small scale) or at a macro-level (large
scale).  Macro-scale ecosystem diversity would therefore be concerned with the variations
in the ecosystems at a large scope, such as oceans, forests, and wetlands. Conversely, small-
scale ecosystem diversity would be interested in the variations in the ecosystems over a
relatively small geographical space or area