Science
What is An ecosystem?
An ecosystem is a community of living things — plants, animals, and microbes — interacting with each other and with their non-living surroundings like air, water, soil, and sunlight. Energy and nutrients flow through it, linking every organism into one interdependent system.
See it, don’t just read it.
Watch a 2-minute lesson with voice + animation that explains an ecosystem.
Key things to understand
- 1It includes both living parts (organisms) and non-living parts (water, air, soil, climate).
- 2Energy flows one way — from the Sun to plants to animals — while nutrients are recycled.
- 3Producers (plants) make food, consumers eat, and decomposers return nutrients to the soil.
- 4Ecosystems range from a single pond to an entire rainforest or the whole ocean.
- 5Removing one species can ripple through the whole web of relationships.
Frequently asked questions
- What is the difference between an ecosystem and a habitat?
- A habitat is the place where a species lives; an ecosystem is the larger web of all the organisms in an area plus their physical environment.
- Why are ecosystems important?
- They provide clean air and water, food, pollination, and climate regulation — services that all life, including humans, depends on.
- What is a food web?
- A food web maps who eats whom in an ecosystem, showing how energy and nutrients pass from producers to consumers to decomposers.