What is ecosystem

Marine ecosystems are aquatic environments with high levels of dissolved salt, such as those found in or near the ocean. Marine ecosystems are defined by their unique biotic (living) and abiotic (nonliving) factors. Biotic factors include plants, animals, and microbes; important abiotic factors include the amount of sunlight in the ecosystem, the amount of oxygen and nutrients dissolved in the water, proximity to land, depth, and temperature. Sunlight is one of the most important abiotic factors for marine ecosystems. It’s so important that scientists classify parts of marine ecosystems—up to three—by the amount of light they receive. The topmost part of a marine ecosystem is the euphotic zone, extending down as far as 200 meters (656 feet) below the surface. At this depth, there is sufficient light for regular photosynthetic activity. Most marine life inhabits this zone. Below the euphotic zone is the dysphotic zone, which can reach from 200 to as deep as 1,000 meters (656 to 3,280 feet) below the surface. At these depths, sunlight is still available, but only enough to facilitate some photosynthesis. Below the dysphotic zone lies the aphotic zone, which does not receive any sunlight. Types of Marine Ecosystems Scientists divide marine ecosystems into several broad categories, although there are discrepancies depending on the source about what qualifies as a marine ecosystem. The number of marine ecosystems is actively debated. Although there is some disagreement, several...

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Pankaj Trivedi, ... Brajesh K. Singh, in Soil Carbon Storage, 2018 1.5Soil Organic Carbon is a Major Driver of Ecosystem Services Ecosystem functions include the physicochemical and biological processes that occur within the ecosystem to maintain terrestrial life. Ecosystem services are the set of ecosystem functions that are directly linked to benefit human well-being ( Kremen, 2005). Soil organic C regulates most ecosystem services including provisioning, supporting, regulating, and cultural services ( Fig. 1.3). These ecosystem services can be broadly categorized as: (1) Provisioning services—SOM serves as the basis for food and fiber production via influencing soil structure, nutrient and water availability; (2) Regulatory services—SOM reduces soil erosion, water run-off, and attenuation of toxic pollutants, and regulates climate change via offsetting greenhouse gas emissions; (3) Supporting services—the formation and breakdown of SOM, which can influence soil characteristics such as soil fertility and soil biodiversity; and (4) Cultural services—SOM influences the soil to retain diverse cultures of the past, the nature of the landscape and preserve archeological remains ( Banwart et al., 2014a,b). Kaj Sand-Jensen, in Encyclopedia of Biodiversity (Second Edition), 2013 Biological Consequences of Acidification Acidification up to 1980 initiated complex chemical and biological changes in surface waters and catchments with poorly weathered rocks and thin soils. The acidif...

Every living thing on Earth needs water to survive, but more than 100,000 species, including our own, need a special kind of water that can only be found in certain places and is in very rare supply: freshwater. The plants, animals, microbes, rocks, soil, sunlight, and water found in and around this valuable resource are all part of what is called a freshwater ecosystem. Less than three percent of our planet’s water is freshwater, and less than half of that is available as a liquid; the rest is locked away as ice in polar caps and glaciers. For these reasons, freshwater ecosystems are a precious resource. Where is Freshwater? Freshwater starts out as water vapor that has evaporated from the surface of oceans, lakes, and other bodies of water. When this vapor rises, it leaves salts and other contaminants behind and becomes “fresh.” The water vapor collects in drifting clouds that eventually release the water back to Earth in the form of rain or snow. After freshwater reaches the ground through precipitation, it flows downhill across a landscape called the watershed to lakes, ponds, rivers, streams, and wetlands. But freshwater can be found in less-obvious places too. More than half of all freshwater on our planet seeps through soil and between rocks to form aquifers that are filled with groundwater. The top surface of an aquifer is called the water table, and this is the depth where wells are drilled to bring freshwater into cities and homes. Studying Freshwater Ecosystems ...

Global warming, if it proceeds as many scientists predict, threatens to undo decades of conservation work and could mean the destruction of the monarch butterfly, the edelweiss, the polar bear and innumerable other species living in fragile ecosystems, an emerging body of scientific evidence suggests. — William K. Stevens The Environment of Ecosystem For the now-ubiquitous prefix eco-, we can thank the great German zoologist Ernst Haeckel, who in 1866 coined the term oekologie from the Greek oikos, meaning “home, place to live.” Haeckel was thinking primarily of the “homes” of animals, but by the time the word translated into English in 1875 (initially spelled “oecology”), its meaning had broadened to embrace plant habitats as well. The related term ecosystem was proposed by the British botanist Arthur Tansley, 60 years after one of his own professors first translated Haeckel’s oekologie. It may have been ecosystem, which treats eco- as a prefix to a standard English word, that gave English speakers permission to do the same in coining a host of other terms: ecosphere, ecotour, eco-friendly, and all the rest. Meanwhile, ecosystem itself has been appropriated freely in all kinds of contexts well removed from the natural environment: the “app ecosystem,” the “education ecosystem,” the “startup ecosystem,” the “pop-culture ecosystem,” the “mobile ecosystem,” the “biking ecosystem,” and so forth. Recent Examples on the Web One function Musk now serves in the tech ecosystem is ...

As a reminder, a community consists of all the populations of all the species that live together in a particular area. The concepts of ecosystem and community are closely related—the difference is that an ecosystem includes the physical environment, while a community does not. In other words, a community is the biotic, or living, component of an ecosystem. In addition to this biotic component, the ecosystem also includes an abiotic component—the physical environment. Some ecosystems are marine, others freshwater, and others yet terrestrial—land based. Ocean ecosystems are most common on Earth, as oceans and the living organisms they contain cover 75% of the Earth's surface. Freshwater ecosystems are the rarest, covering only 1.8% of the Earth's surface. Terrestrial, land, ecosystems cover the remainder of Earth. Terrestrial ecosystems can be further grouped into broad categories called biomes, based largely on climate. Examples of terrestrial biomes include tropical rain forests, savannas, deserts, coniferous forests, deciduous forests, and tundra. The map below shows the broad distribution of biomes on Earth. Even within a biome, there can be great diversity. For example, both the Sonoran desert, on the left, and the interior of the island of Boa Vista, on the right, can be classified as deserts, but they have very different ecological communities. Many more species of plants and animals live in the Sonoran desert. We’ll take a closer look at the movement of energy and ma...