What is Ecosystem | Importance of Ecosystem

In this article we are going to discuss about the Ecosystem but before that we have to know the importance of ecosystem in 2021 so well let’s get started

When I first started to get into environmental issues, the first term that came to my mind was “”ecosystem“”. Then I learned more about it and realized it was much more than a branch of biology……

WHAT IS ECOSYSTEM ?

Etymologically the word ecosystem derives from the Greek oikos, meaning “home,” and systema, or “system.” Nineteenth- and early 20th-century ecologists, ✌

The term Ecosystem was first proposed by A.G. Tansley in 1935. he defined it as “the system resulting from the interaction of all the living and nonliving factors of Environment. An ecosystem consists of the biological community that occurs in some locale, and the physical and chemical factors that make up its non-living or abiotic environment. There are There are many examples of ecosystems-a pond, a forest, an estuary, a grassland

An ecosystem is an area where organisms interact with one another as well as with the nonliving parts of the environment.  

An ecosystem can be huge, such as a large forest or lake, or it can be small, such as a puddle of water or a rotting log. The self-sustaining structural and Functional interaction between living and non-living components.

An ecosystem includes all of the living things (plants, animals and organisms) in a given area, interacting with each other, and also with their non-living environments (weather, earth, sun, soil, climate, atmosphere. 

Ecosystems are the foundations of the Biosphere and they deter remine the health of the entire earth system. In an ecosystem, each organism has its own role to play. Consider a small puddle at the back of your home. In it, you may find all sorts of living things, from microorganisms to insects and plants. These may depend on non-living things like water, sunlight, turbulence in the puddle, temperature, atmospheric pressure and even nutrients in the water for life. 

WHAT HAPPENS IN AN ECOSYSTEM

usually, energy enters the ecosystems as sunlight and captured in chemical form by photo synthesizers like plants and algae.  

The energy is then passed through the ecosystem, changing forms as organisms metabolize, produce waste, eat one another, and eventually, die and decompose. 

The main functioning ecosystem is reflecting the collective life activities of plants, animals, and microbes and the effects these activities (e.g., feeding, growing, moving, excreting waste) have on the physical and chemical conditions of their environment of changes.

And the major function of ecosystem is 3 types Stocks of energy and materials (for example, biomass, genes), Fluxes of energy or material processing (for example, productivity, decomposition Stability of rates or stocks over time (for example, resilience, predictability). 

THE IMPORTANCE OF ECOSYSTEM

Ecosystems underpin all human life and activities. The goods and services they provide are vital to sustaining well-being, and to future economic and social development. The benefits ecosystems provide include food, water, timber, air purification, soil formation and pollination. It provides habitat to wild plants and animals. It promotes various food chains and food webs. It controls essential ecological processes and promotes lives. Involved in the recycling of nutrients between biotic and abiotic components for living in a cycle.

“The Earth is what we all have in common.”

TYPES OF ECOSYSTEM

Are you curious about the different types of ecosystem? Well, let’s see. There are  

• Tropical Rainforest 
• Temperate Forest 
• Coniferous Forest (Taiga) 
• Mediterranean 
• Tropical Grassland (Savannah) 
• Temperate Grassland 
• Mountain 
• Desert 
• Tundra. 

NAMING OF ECOSYSTEM

Ecosystems can be named in several ways. 

1.Based on the abiotic environment e.g., terrestrial or freshwater ecosystem. 

2. Based on the dominant species e.g., Mangrove ecosystem or a saltbush ecosystem. 

3 Based on the structure of the plant community e.g., rainforest ecosystem, a grassland ecosystem or a forest ecosystem. 

We live in a terrestrial ecosystem… A terrestrial ecosystem is a type of ecosystem found only on land forms. Six primary terrestrial ecosystems exist: tundra, taiga, temperate deciduous forest, tropical rain forest, grassland, deserts. 

STABILITY AND DYNAMICS OF ECOSYSTEMS.

Ecosystems are dynamic systems, and a static ecosystem would be a dead ecosystem—just as a static cell would be a dead cell. As we discussed above, energy is constantly flowing through an ecosystem and chemical nutrients are continually being recycled. At higher levels of organization, organisms are dying and being born, populations are fluctuating in their numbers, and climate patterns are varying seasonally and in less predictable ways. 

EQUILIBRIUM AND DISTURBANCE 

Equilibrium is the steady state of an ecosystem, in which its composition and identity remain generally constant despite fluctuations in physical conditions and the makeup of the biotic community. Ecosystems may be knocked out of equilibrium by disturbances, disruptive events that affect their composition. 

Some disturbances are a result of natural processes. For example, fire is a disturbance that can be caused by lightning in a prairie or forest ecosystem. Other disturbances are the result of human activities. Another Examples acid rainfall, deforestation, algal blooms, and the introduction of invasive species. 

Different ecosystems respond different to the same disturbance; one may recover rapidly, and another may recover more slowly or not at all. 

RESISTANCE AND RESILENCE 

Ecologists sometimes use two parameters to describe how an ecosystem responds to disturbance. These parameters are resistance and resilience. The ability of an ecosystem to remain at equilibrium in spite of disturbances is called resistance. How readily an ecosystem returns to equilibrium after being disturbed is called resilience. Some ecologists consider resistance to be an element of resilience—one that acts on a short timescale^{4,5}4,5start superscript, 4, comma, 5, end superscript. 

Many ecologists think that the biodiversity of an ecosystem plays a key role in stability. For example, if there were just one plant species with a particular role in an ecosystem, a disturbance that harms that one species—say, a drought for a drought-sensitive species—might have a severe impact on the ecosystem as a whole. In contrast, if there were several plant species with similar functional roles, there would be a better chance of one of them being drought-tolerant and helping the ecosystem as a whole survive the drought period^66 start superscript, 6, end superscript. 

Ecosystem resistance and resilience are important when we consider the effects of disturbances caused by human activity. If a disturbance is severe enough, it may change an ecosystem beyond the point of recovery—push the ecosystem into a zone where it is no longer resilient. A disturbance of this sort could lead to permanent alteration or loss of the ecosystem. 

AFFECT ON HUMAN TENDENCY  

Ecosystem services are the benefits that people obtain from ecosystems. Ecosystem services are indispensable to the wellbeing of all people, everywhere in the world. They include provisioning, regulating, and cultural services that directly affect people, and supporting services needed to maintain the other services People and nature Humans everywhere depend on Earth’s ecosystems to survive and thrive but humans also threaten these ecosystems that support Us, through agriculture, deforestation, climate change, and other activities Our grand future challenge: Preserving ecosystems and their functions while allowing people to live well 

HOW DO HUMAN DESTROY THE ECOSYSTEM? 

Land-use changes Humans are destroying natural landscapes as they mine resources and urbanize areas. Some examples include the mining of natural resources like coal, hunting and fishing of animals for food, the clearing of forests for urbanization and wood use.  

• Overpopulation & Overconsumption
• Emission of Carbon Dioxide and Other Greenhouse Gases
• Destruction of the Reefs
• Production of Black Carbon

As a indian i request to all of you pls stop doing this because i only feel angry when i see waste.

HUMAN CONTRIBUTE TO THE ECOSYSTEM? 

Humans impact the physical environment in many ways…. overpopulation, pollution, burning fossil fuels, and deforestation. Changes like these have triggered climate change, soil erosion, poor air quality, and undrinkable water…and etc. 

connection of human and ecosystem we export a lot of materials from our ecosystems. The cars and planes we use for our need and transportation…have far reaching consequences for other ecosystems because they export much pollutants to the atmosphere that may later enter other ecosystems….so please don’t do like this.