7. Describe the components of an ecosystem.
An ecosystem refers to be the functional unit of nature in which living organisms interact among themselves and also with their surrounding physical environment in order to perform nutrient cycling, energy flow, decomposition and productivity. There are many types of ecosystems such as pond ecosystem, forest ecosystem etc.
Components of ecosystem
The components of the ecosystem can be divided into abiotic components and biotic components
1. Abiotic components- These include the non-living components of nature such as light, temperature, water, soil, air, inorganic nutrients etc.
2. Biotic components- The biotic components of an ecosystem refer to the living organisms present in that ecosystem. The biotic components are divided as producers, consumers and decomposers. Producers are plants, consumers include animals which can be herbivores or carnivores and decomposers include microorganisms like fungi and bacteria.