There is an interaction between all organism and their physical environment that maintain a balance between the organisms & physical environment. exchange of the substance and flow of energy. It is called as Ecosystem or Ecological system.
Ecosystem is a functional unit of ecology.Term ecosystem was first used by British ecologist Arthur Tansley. Tensley defined ecosystem as the interaction between the biotic factors (plants, animals & other organisms) and abiotic factor (weather, soil.air & temperature).
Before Tansley, Karl Mobius (1877) called it as Biocoenosis, Forbes(1987) as Microcosm and Mishra as Ecocosm. But the ecosystem, is universally accepted.
Structure and Function of Ecosystem :
Structure of ecosystem includes biotic & abiotic components of the ecosystem.The main structure feature of the ecosystem is species composition and stratification can also be expressed by the food relations among organisms. It also includes study of numbers of species, biomass of the organism, life cycle & distribution of the organism and quantity & distribution of the abiotic substance.
The function of flow of energy & flow of nutrients in the ecosystem. In fact flow of energy and nutrients keep the various components of the ecosystem in the form of a unit.
