ecosystem

Meaning

Noun

• A system formed by an ecological community and its environment that functions as a unit.
• The interconnectedness of organisms (plants, animals, microbes) with each other and their environment.
• A set of interconnected products and services.

Related

Broader meaning words

• system

Origin

• From eco- + system. in a paper titled "The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts" in the journal Ecology.
• {{cite-journal
• |lang=en
• |journal=Ecology
• |volume=16
• |number=3
• |title=The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts
• |year=1935
• |month=July
• |author=Arthur Tansley
• |authorlink=Arthur Tansley
• |url=http://www.ecology150anniversary.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/tansley-1935.pdf
• |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006125220/http://www.ecology150anniversary.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/tansley-1935.pdf
• |archivedate=2016-10-06
• |passage=Our natural prejudices force us to consider the organisms (in the sense of the biologist) as the most important parts of these systems, but certainly the inorganic “factors” are also parts – there could be no systems without them, and there is constant interchange of the most various kinds within each system, not only between the organisms but between the organic and the inorganic. These ecosystems, as we may call them, are of the most various kinds and sizes.