ECOSYSTEMS

Our planet is home to an incredible diversity of living things. We can find life in all types of climates and landscapes, from the botton of the ocean to the top of a snowy mountain or the middle of a tropical rainforest. All of these places, along with the organisms that live in them, form a variety of ecosystems.

The biotope includes all of the non-living things in on ecosystem, such as geographical relief, soil, light and temperature.

The biocoenosis includes of all the living things in an ecosystem, such as plants, animals and other organisms.

There are many different relationships between the living and non-living elements of an ecosystem.

Trophic relationships are important connections between the organisms within an ecosystem. They are the feeding relationships between organisms that eat and organisms that are eaten.

·         1. Plants and algae are producers: they make their own food.

·         2. Herbivorous organisms are primary consumers: they feed on plants and algae.

·         3. Carnivorous organisms are secondary consumers: they feed on herbivores.

·         4. Tertiary consumers: feed on secondary consumers.

·         5. Fungi and bacteria are decomposers: they break down the remains of dead organisms.

A trophic chain or food chain represents the interrelatiomships between organisms on different trophic levels. A trophic web or food web represents all the different food chains within an ecosystem.