Most ecologists will not commit to defining what
constitutes an ecosystem. Here is meant any community of a wide variety
of plants and animals bonded together by a common geographic region
and sharing the flow of energy that drives the system to equilibrium.
Ecosystems are complex enough to allow the development and maintenance
of stable food chains and food webs. This activity links all those life
forms into interdependencies. Most of the energy cycles through the
communities located within the confines of a given ecosystem unless
that system becomes disturbed (e.g., encroachment, natural disasters,
etc.).
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