Environmental Studies(ES)

ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES

Lesson 8: Ecosystems

Definition

A.G.Tansley, a british botanist in 1935 coined the word “ECOSYSTEM” as ‘The system resulting from the integration of all the living and non-living factors of the environment’.
Another definition is ‘the living community of plants and animals in any area together with the non-living components of the environment – such as soil, air and water – constitute the ecosystem’.
A flow of energy leads to clearly defined trophic structure, biotic diversity and material cycles, exchange of materials between living and non-living components within the system is known as “Ecosystem”.