Ecosystem

Is a biological community of interacting organisms that live, feed, reproduce and interact in
the same area or environment.
An ecosystem includes all of the living things (plants, animals and organisms) in a given
area, interacting with each other, together with their non-living environments such as
weather, earth, sun, soil, climate, atmosphere.
Ecosystem simply means ecological systems. Ecology is the study of ecosystems.
The study of ecosystems mainly consists of the study of certain processes that link the
living, or biotic, components to the non-living, or abiotic, components. Energy
transformations and biogeochemical cycling are the main processes that comprise the field
of ecosystem ecology. As we learned earlier, ecology generally is defined as the interactions
of organisms with one another and with the environment in which they occur. We can study
ecology at the level of the individual, the population, the community, and the ecosystem.
Why are ecosystems important to study?
It is because other things affect them, like our pollution, even in places where we don't live
we still have an effect, our fertilizers pollute water; paper mills and cars pollute the air. Also
some animals just pass through but aren't permanent residence but still effect what's going
on, the like is a complicated web of interrelatedness, ever hear of the butterfly effect, no,
not the movie, but is something like a butterfly flapping it's wings on one side of the world
will cause a tornado on the other (note the actual saying but close enough) what I am trying
to say is that even though an organism doesn't live there doesn't mean that it doesn't affect
the life that is there.
As with the importance of ecosystems to us, this would require that you realize that
everyone lives within an ecosystem. The food you eat had to be grown somewhere and the
water you drink has a source. These agricultural fields, rivers, and springs are part of your
ecosystem. Your own body is an ecosystem which can be polluted or injured much like a
rainforest can be. Ecosystems need not describe a far-off rainforest or coral reef. It is
impossible to live on Earth without participating in an ecosystem.
Unfortunately, the lifestyle of most modern humans is destroying the ecosystem we depend
on for survival by squandering resources and killing the very systems which sustain us.
By destroying natural systems and using up our fossil fuels, we are destroying the very
means by which we survive. Another consequence is the rapid rate of extinction of other
animal species which could not save themselves from our destructive habits.
By destroying ecosystems through habitat destruction and pollution, we are making the
extinction of our own human civilization a very real possibility. We can't easily create our
oxygen to breathe or own water out of dry air. We depend on other organisms in functioning
ecosystems to sustain us.