The Ecosystem and Its Basic Concepts

What is Ecology?

Ecology is the field of Biology that studies the relationship between living beings and between living beings and the environment.

2. What is a species?

A species is a set of living beings able to cross among themselves generating fertile offspring.

This concept however does not apply to individuals of exclusive asexual reproduction and so other definitions have been proposed. For example, “a species is a set of living beings that evolve in a common manner all of them considered ancestors of the same type in relation to common descendants”.

3. What is a population?

A population is a set of individuals of the same species found in a given place in a given time.

4. What is a community? What is the difference between the concepts of community and population?

A community is a set of populations of living beings that live in the same region and interact with each other.

In Ecology a population is a set whose members (living in a given place in a given time) are part of the same species. A community is a set of populations of different species (living in a given place in a given time).

5. What is the difference between an ecological niche and a habitat?

An ecological niche is a set of peculiar activities, resources and strategies that a species explores to survive and reproduce.

An habitat is the place where the species lives to explore its ecological niche.

In other words it can be said that the habitat is the “address” of the species and the ecological niche is the “profession” of the species.

6. What are biotic factors?

Biotic factors are living beings (plants, animals and microorganisms) that are part of a given environment.

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