ecosystem

[ ee-koh-sis-tuhm, ek-oh- ]

noun

1. Ecology. a system, or a group of interconnected elements, formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment:

   Aquatic ecosystems differ radically from their terrestrial counterparts.

2. any system or network of interconnecting and interacting parts, as in a business:

   The success of Apple’s ecosystem depends on hardware/software integration.

   Manufacturers, retailers, and customers are all part of the automotive industry’s ecosystem.

ecosystem

/ ˈɛkəʊ-; ˈiːkəʊˌsɪstəm /

noun

1. ecology a system involving the interactions between a community of living organisms in a particular area and its nonliving environment

ecosystem

/ ē′kō-sĭs′təm /

1. A community of organisms together with their physical environment, viewed as a system of interacting and interdependent relationships and including such processes as the flow of energy through trophic levels and the cycling of chemical elements and compounds through living and nonliving components of the system.

ecosystem

1. A collection of living things and the environment in which they live. For example, a prairie ecosystem includes coyotes, the rabbits on which they feed, and the grasses that feed the rabbits.

Notes

Chemical substances move through ecosystems on the Earth in cycles ( see carbon cycle ).

The source of energy for almost every ecosystem on Earth is the sun .

Word History and Origins

Origin of ecosystem¹

First recorded in 1930–35; eco- + system

Word History and Origins

Origin of ecosystem¹

C20: from eco ( logy ) + system

Synonym Study

ecosystem, habitat, environment, biosphere, ecology are all scientific terms that can refer to spaces or systems in which plants and animals (including humans) live in relationship with each other and with the surrounding physical conditions. environment is the most general term. It can refer to a set of surrounding conditions thought of as a whole, as in a desert environment, or it can single out one or more conditions that could exist with a variety of others: This plant thrives in a warm, moist environment. By itself, it usually refers to all the conditions, elements, and living things that humans live among: Armed conflict always harms the environment. A habitat, on the other hand, is a specific area or set of surrounding conditions that is the natural home of a particular animal, plant, or other organism: The polar bear’s habitat is the Arctic sea ice. The word ecosystem refers to all of the organisms and physical conditions within a certain space, interacting with each other to form a complex, balanced web of relationships. It can be of any size: The 3,000-acre marsh is a finely balanced wetland ecosystem. Each aquarium houses a complete ecosystem of rocks and sand, aquatic plants, fish, and other creatures. The largest known ecosystem of all is the biosphere, consisting of the whole earth and all its living inhabitants. ecology is different from all the other words here: like them, it can mean the web of relationships operating within a particular ecosystem, as in a grassland ecology, but more often refers broadly to relationships between organisms and their environments in general, or to the science that studies these relationships.

Example Sentences

These things need to be done within a broader ecosystem, not just within a country but across the globe.

From Fortune

That burgeoning battleground “looks like what we saw in the early ’90s with the beginning of the cable ecosystem,” said one media executive.

From Digiday

Yet “parasites are so incredibly diverse” and influence a host species so much they can essentially “run ecosystems,” he says.

From Science News

A digital ecosystem that does not rely on third-party cookies is approaching — with Google’s Chrome deadline for retiring third-party cookies looming and iOS 14 on its way.

From Digiday

That complexity highlights the task ahead for researchers trying to anticipate changes across ocean ecosystems as the waters warm, says Lewis Barnett, a Seattle-based NOAA fish biologist, who was not involved in the study.

From Science News

From the looks of it, mistletoe is a keystone species and plays a crucial role in that forest ecosystem.

From The Daily Beast

Experts generally consider known mortality to represent about half of actual grizzly bear deaths for the ecosystem.

From The Daily Beast

Bats are crucial to the ecosystem, performing extremely valuable jobs like pollination and insect control.

From The Daily Beast

Even in the most sophisticated echelons of the media ecosystem, the fix was in.

From The Daily Beast

Over the next decade, the RETs wreaked havoc on the ecosystem, eating ducklings, small water birds, and other amphibians.

From The Daily Beast

Familiarity with the biological components of an ecosystem is essential to meaningful radiobiological assessment.

From Project Gutenberg

Often little or no data are available to indicate the previous state of the ecosystem or the rate of degradation.

From Project Gutenberg

In some areas, nomads moving to less arid areas disrupt the local ecosystem and increase the rate of erosion of the land.

From Project Gutenberg

In these marginal areas, human activity may stress the ecosystem beyond its tolerance limit, resulting in degradation of the land.

From Project Gutenberg