Levels of organisation
within an ecosystem
Ecosystem, biome, community, population, organism, level of organisation, animals, plants, insects, flora, fauna, birds.
An ecosystem is a geographical area that has both living and non-living aspects. It can be split up into different sections, and forms a bubble of life whereby biotic and abiotic factors take part to make a liveable area.
There are several levels of organisation within the ecosystem:
Let's take a closer look at some of them.
May as well start with the biggest one. Though deemed bigger than an ecosystem, the biome is the overall area where an ecosytem sits. The only level above this is the Earth. So, back to biome; being an overall area it can be grouped into the following categories: Forest, Tundra, Desert, Ocean, Savannah, Chapparal, Temperate Rainforest, Taiga, Freshwater, Marine, Tropical Rainforest. There are others. If you play Minecraft, you will already know all these.
If you live in the UK, you may live in the forest or wood, in a town setting, by a lake, river or stream. Although not strictly considered biomes, they work in a similar fashion.
This is the area where every aspect of the system, including living and non-living aspects, affect what happens. In terms of living aspects, this could be the animals, plants and insects that live there. In terms of non-living aspects, it could mean the termperature of the area, how often it rains, what the pH levels are in the soil.
Half of the world's species live in rainforests. This is because they are near the equator, and the conditions are always warm and wet. There is an abundance of every type of organism that lives there.
From here downwards in the different levels, it all relates to the higher tiers when you think about the bigger picture.
Take a look at this YouTube video for more on what an ecosystem is:
A community is a place where all the living species are in the habitat. In terms of study, scientists look at how every animal, insect and plant act within a given area - for example a savannah. Within this, they can look at the interaction between lions and bison, or flies and hippos. Birds are also included, so you would find out how birds interact with other animals, and why they do so.
The scientists who work for community, seek to conserve the animals and organisms that live in a community, so as to keep the world ticking y. They work to save species from extinction, and look at things such as global warming to see how they can be protected.
Population refers to the number of a certain species within a community. So, for the example of the savannah, it would be looking at the amount of lions in the entire habitat, or the amount of zebra that live there. The same goes for the plants in an ecosystem. Whereby it can be difficult to maintain knowledge on where the savannah ends, a different biome - an island - will be easier to track plant growth due to the limits of the coast.
Scientists that study this area, concentrate on the one organism, or possibly a family. So, for example, a pack of wolves, when they move on to another area - they will be looking at how they move with the Alpha male being at the back of the pack so he can keep a watch on the rest of the pack and move forward if needed. We know this because scientists have studied them previously.
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