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An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system that environments and their organisms form through their interaction. [2]: 458 The biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Ecosystems are controlled by external and internal factors.
The agency has issued the Digital Map of European Ecological Regions (DMEER), and operates with a total of 70 ecoregions, of which 58 are within the European continent. Some of these ecoregions are congruent with the World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) ecoregions, and some are not. [2] [3]
Ecosystem services are ecologically mediated functional processes essential to sustaining healthy human societies. [6] Water provision and filtration, production of biomass in forestry, agriculture, and fisheries, and removal of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO 2) from the atmosphere are examples of ecosystem services essential to public health and economic opportunity.
A map of the Amazon rainforest ecoregions. The yellow line encloses the ecoregions per the World Wide Fund for Nature. A map of the bioregions of Canada and the US. An ecoregion (ecological region) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm.
In the United States, the EPA and the United States Geological Survey (USGS) are the principal federal agencies working with the CEC to define and map ecoregions. Ecoregions may be identified by similarities in geology , physiography , vegetation , climate , soils , land use , wildlife distributions, and hydrology .
Ecosystems may be habitats within biomes that form an integrated whole and a dynamically responsive system having both physical and biological complexes. Ecosystem ecology is the science of determining the fluxes of materials (e.g. carbon, phosphorus) between different pools (e.g., tree biomass, soil organic material).
Afrikaans; Alemannisch; Anarâškielâ; Аԥсшәа; العربية; Aragonés; Asturianu; Azərbaycanca; বাংলা; 閩南語 / Bân-lâm-gú; Башҡортса
Lentic ecosystems can be compared with lotic ecosystems, which involve flowing terrestrial waters such as rivers and streams. Together, these two ecosystems are examples of freshwater ecosystems. Lentic systems are diverse, ranging from a small, temporary rainwater pool a few inches deep to Lake Baikal, which has a maximum depth of 1642 m. [10]