ecosystem
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.
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.
Origin of ecosystem
1synonym study For ecosystem
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.
Words Nearby ecosystem
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
How to use ecosystem in a sentence
These things need to be done within a broader ecosystem, not just within a country but across the globe.
‘Work to your strength’: Huawei’s CTO weighs in on U.S. efforts to build a Huawei alternative | Veta Chan | August 20, 2020 | FortuneThat burgeoning battleground “looks like what we saw in the early ’90s with the beginning of the cable ecosystem,” said one media executive.
‘We’re still in the wild west’: Free, ad-supported streaming TV war heats up with Amazon, Pluto TV updates | Tim Peterson | August 19, 2020 | DigidayYet “parasites are so incredibly diverse” and influence a host species so much they can essentially “run ecosystems,” he says.
How two new fungus species got named after the COVID-19 pandemic | Susan Milius | August 17, 2020 | Science NewsA 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.
Over a third of publishers won’t have an identity solution that will continue to work post-cookies | LiveRamp | August 17, 2020 | DigidayThat 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.
Species may swim thousands of kilometers to escape ocean heat waves | Carolyn Gramling | August 10, 2020 | Science News
From the looks of it, mistletoe is a keystone species and plays a crucial role in that forest ecosystem.
Experts generally consider known mortality to represent about half of actual grizzly bear deaths for the ecosystem.
Bats are crucial to the ecosystem, performing extremely valuable jobs like pollination and insect control.
Even in the most sophisticated echelons of the media ecosystem, the fix was in.
Over the next decade, the RETs wreaked havoc on the ecosystem, eating ducklings, small water birds, and other amphibians.
How the ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ Inadvertently Caused an Environmental Crisis | Alex Suskind | August 5, 2014 | THE DAILY BEASTFamiliarity with the biological components of an ecosystem is essential to meaningful radiobiological assessment.
Atoms, Nature, and Man | Neal O. HinesOften little or no data are available to indicate the previous state of the ecosystem or the rate of degradation.
Deserts | A. S. WalkerIn some areas, nomads moving to less arid areas disrupt the local ecosystem and increase the rate of erosion of the land.
Deserts | A. S. WalkerIn these marginal areas, human activity may stress the ecosystem beyond its tolerance limit, resulting in degradation of the land.
Deserts | A. S. Walker
British Dictionary definitions for ecosystem
/ (ˈiːkəʊˌsɪstəm, ˈɛkəʊ-) /
ecology a system involving the interactions between a community of living organisms in a particular area and its nonliving environment
Origin of ecosystem
1Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Scientific definitions for ecosystem
[ ē′kō-sĭs′təm ]
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.
The American Heritage® Science Dictionary Copyright © 2011. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Cultural definitions for ecosystem
[ (ee-koh-sis-tuhm, ek-oh-sis-tuhm) ]
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 for ecosystem
Notes for ecosystem
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
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