An ecosystem is all the plants and animals that live in a particular area together with the complex relationship that exists between them and their environment.
[technical]
Madagascar's ecosystems range from rainforest to semi-desert.
...the forest ecosystem.
ecosystem in British English
(ˈiːkəʊˌsɪstəm, ˈɛkəʊ-)
noun
ecology
a system involving the interactions between a community of living organisms in a particular area and its nonliving environment
Word origin
C20: from eco(logy) + system
ecosystem in American English
(ˈɛkoʊˌsɪstəm; ˈikoʊˌsɪstəm)
noun
a system made up of a community of animals, plants, and bacteria interrelated together with its physical and chemical environment
Word origin
eco- + system
COBUILD Collocations
ecosystem
diverse ecosystem
fragile ecosystem
marine ecosystem
Examples of 'ecosystem' in a sentence
ecosystem
For the part that we have in the entire ecosystem.
Smithsonian Mag (2017)
When you rip out an apex predator, the entire ecosystem can collapse.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
The government is frantically trying to work this out by mapping the entire financial services ecosystem, but clear answers are elusive.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
A cull of 100,000 is being planned because they are destroying the fragile ecosystem.
Times, Sunday Times (2016)
It was a complex, long-term ecosystem.
Smithsonian Mag (2017)
But similar to the effects of enhanced CO2 on a forest ecosystem, that benefit only extends up until a point.
Smithsonian Mag (2017)
What is much less easy is to observe the effects on entire ecosystems.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
The third issue is about damage to a fragile ecosystem.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
Hay meadows as complex ecosystems may be more resistant.
Times, Sunday Times (2010)
That shuffling has radically affected native creatures evolved to live within a particular ecosystem with particular neighbors.
Christianity Today (2000)
The damage we are doing to the sea bed affects the whole marine ecosystem.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
Those gnashers might just be responsible for keeping an entire ecosystem alive.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
Experts fear the entire ecosystem could be affected.
The Sun (2009)
Environmental campaigners fear that drilling could damage the fragile ecosystem.
Times, Sunday Times (2015)
And there is real concern about the effects of the heavily toxic cotton industry on fragile ecosystems.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
Activists argue that mining would displace thousands and destroy the fragile ecosystem.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
The most convincing explanation is of a complex ecosystem in which different kinds of organism played distinct roles.
Times, Sunday Times (2006)
Bees keep the whole ecosystem ticking.
The Sun (2009)
The other addresses areas that affect ecosystems, such as the health of fisheries.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
Then as now, the transformation of the environment disrupted existing ecosystems.
The Times Literary Supplement (2010)
But then fashion's entire ecosystem is a ripple effect.
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
The financial implications for the fragile ecosystem of London theatre?
Times, Sunday Times (2009)
Now we know that the human body is not so much a single organism, but a whole ecosystem.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
The peregrine represents not only his own glory, but the deeper and more important glory of the entire ecosystem.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
That, in turn, will change the ecological balances in these distinctive and complex ecosystems.
Michael Boulter EXTINCTION: Evolution and the End of Man (2002)
The lesson of Lyme Bay is that the protection of features does not work without management of the whole ecosystem.
Times, Sunday Times (2012)
As with many cyclical, complex ecosystems interwoven within unavoidable human influence, there is no one simple answer at any given time.
Times, Sunday Times (2013)
In other languages
ecosystem
British English: ecosystem NOUN
An ecosystem is the relationship between all the living things in a particular area together.
...the forest ecosystem.
American English: ecosystem
Brazilian Portuguese: ecossistema
Chinese: 生态系统
European Spanish: ecosistema
French: écosystème
German: Ökosystem
Italian: ecosistema
Japanese: 生態系
Korean: 생태계
European Portuguese: ecossistema
Latin American Spanish: ecosistema
All related terms of 'ecosystem'
closed ecosystem
a self-replenishing ecosystem in which life can be maintained without external factors or outside aid
diverse ecosystem
An ecosystem is all the plants and animals that live in a particular area together with the complex relationship that exists between them and their environment .
ecosystem services
the important benefits for human beings that arise from healthily functioning ecosystems, notably production of oxygen , soil genesis , and water detoxification
fragile ecosystem
An ecosystem is all the plants and animals that live in a particular area together with the complex relationship that exists between them and their environment .
marine ecosystem
An ecosystem is all the plants and animals that live in a particular area together with the complex relationship that exists between them and their environment .