ecosystem

American  

[ee-koh-sis-tuhm, ek-oh-] / ˈi koʊˌsɪs təm, ˈɛk oʊ- /

noun

• ecosystems
  plural

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.

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ecosystem British  

/ ˈɛkəʊ-, ˈiːkəʊˌsɪstəm /

noun

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

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ecosystem Scientific  

/ 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.

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ecosystem Cultural  

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.

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Synonym Usage

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.

Discover More

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.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• ecosystems
  plural

Etymology

Origin of ecosystem

First recorded in 1930–35; eco- + system

Explanation

An ecosystem is all the living things, from plants and animals to microscopic organisms, that share an environment. Everything in an ecosystem has an important role. Well, almost everything. The term ecosystem was coined in 1935, though ecosystems have been around as long as living things. Eco is a spin-off from the word ecology and describes anything having to do with the environment and our relation to it. You've probably heard of related terms like eco-friendly and eco-warrior. And system comes from the Greek word systema or "organized body, whole."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ecosystem ecosystems

Social media posts showcasing fungi picking is affecting a forest's ecosystem, according to officials.

From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026

Khanal had earlier told reporters on Saturday that Nepal needed greater research to "understand the changing dynamics of the Himalayan ecosystem" and the risks they pose to the landlocked country, encircled by India and China.

From Barron's ● Aug. 29, 2026

In one trading location at least, Anthropic has already hit the magic $2 trillion valuation that its shareholders and AI bulls were seeking as confirmation and vindiation of the whole AI ecosystem.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 28, 2026

"However, maximum decomposition is not desirable in every ecosystem," says co-project leader Franz Bender, head of the agroecological assessments team at Agroscope.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 28, 2026

Though exhausted, ill, and anxious about the voyage ahead, they carried evidence of a vast, teeming, interconnected ecosystem of plants and insects, the likes of which the great European academies had never seen.

From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman

The upgrade should benefit WorkBuddy, Tencent’s broader ecosystems, and internal productivity in areas such as video game development and ad recommendations.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

Insects, which today make up the most species-rich animal group on Earth, eventually became central to these ecosystems.

From Science Daily ● Aug. 27, 2026

“Nvidia continues to make strategic commitments across supply, infrastructure, and partner ecosystems to capitalize on the substantial growth opportunities ahead,” they said.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 27, 2026

Many wild places historically depended on fires to maintain their ecosystems, and as people have continued to build farther into those places, they have, with great success, suppressed those blazes, Frievalt said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 26, 2026

“It’s the terrain where two different ecosystems meet. In an ecotone, the landscape will contain elements of the two different ecosystems. It’s like a natural borderlands.”

From "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe" by Benjamin Alire Saenz