Home: Ecosystems

What is an Ecosystem?

Within all species, individuals interact with each other - feeding together, mating together, and living together. Some species have a pecking order as well, and each individual has a role to play within it. 

However, it is not only individuals within a species that interact. Different species of animals interact with each other all the time. For instance, animals eat other animals through their interactions in a food web. But plants are included in this web as well as they, too, are eaten by animals. 

What would happen if the weather were really cold all the time? Well, not all species of animals, plants and bacteria would be able to survive. What differences are there between species who live in the Rocky Mountains and those who inhabit the Sahara desert? Landscape also determines where plants and animals might live. But what, exactly, is an ecosystem? An ecosystem is a geographical area of a variable size where plants, animals, the landscape and the climate all interact together.

Heritage Trail:
About 1 in 10 of Alberta's towns, cities, rivers and lakes are named after animals. Not all of Alberta's animal-influenced place names are after local animals.

• Animal Place Names 1: Everything from Jackfish to Beaver

• Animal Place Names Part 2: Deer, Elk and Moose

• Animal Place Names Part 3: Exotic species like Llama and Cattalo

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The whole earth's surface can be described by a series of interconnected ecosystems.  All living beings form and are part of ecosystems.   They are diverse and always changing. Within an ecosystem, all aspects of the environment (both living things and their non-living settings) interact and affect one another. Every species affects the lives of those around them.

A small ecosystem in the boreal forest might look something like this: in the summertime, trees in forests (that produce oxygen used by living things through photosynthesis) lower the temperature in the forest for communities in the hot summer months. In turn, some members of the communities will probably feed upon the tree to gain nourishment, thus affecting or stunting the tree's growth. 

Different areas in the world house different ecosystems. For example, you won't find an elephant or a tropical rainforest in Alberta! The different world ecological units are called biomes and they each have different flora, fauna, landscapes and weather patterns. An ecosystem is not the same thing as a biome. A biome is a large unit that is home to many different ecosystems. Within Alberta, there are six different biomes that each have their own specific flora and fauna distribution. These regions are: Grassland, Parkland, Boreal Forest, Foothill, Rocky Mountain and the Canadian Shield, all indicated on the map of Alberta's Regions.

[What is an Ecosystem?][How Ecosystems Develop]
[Changing Ecosystems][Population Controls]
[Food Webs][Plant Life]