Summary
An ecosystem is the set made up of the living things of a place (the biocenosis) and the physical environment they live in (the biotope: the soil, the water, the air, the temperature), together with all the relationships between them. A forest, a pond or a coral reef are ecosystems.
Energy enters through plants, which capture the Sun's light, and passes from one organism to another forming food chains. In them there are producers (plants), consumers (animals: herbivores and carnivores) and decomposers (fungi and bacteria, which recycle matter). When several chains cross they form a food web. Living things also relate to each other: they compete for resources, some prey on others, or they help each other (symbiosis).
Key points
- Ecosystem = living things (biocenosis) + physical environment (biotope) + their relationships.
- Energy enters through plants, which capture the Sun's light.
- Food chain: producers → consumers → decomposers.
- Producers (plants), consumers (herbivores and carnivores), decomposers (fungi, bacteria).
- Several crossing chains form a food web.
- Relationships between species: competition, predation and symbiosis.
- Decomposers recycle matter and close the cycle.