Ecology

Mountain river
Courtesy of the EPA

Ecology entails the study of living organisms, their interactions with one another and their abiotic (non-living) environment.

• Habitat is the term used to describe where an organism lives and to which it is adapted.
• A population is all the members of the same species living in the habitat.
• Community is the populations of different species living and interacting with one another in the same habitat.

An ecosystem is a community of organisms and their abiotic environment. Large ecosystems examples include temperate deciduous forest, grassland, freshwater pond, seashore, hot desert, tropical rain forest.

Biosphere is the part of Earth (air, water, soil) inhabited by living organisms.