The basic relationship between organisms and their environment (including other organisms) is the maintenance of life through various kinds of energy exchanges. Useful information concerning energy flow through forest ecosystems has been obtained by the application of this kind of approach, e.g., by comparing ratios of leaf fall to litter deposition on the forest floor. It has been found that the rates of leaf production are higher and those of litter accumulation lower, in the tropics than at higher latitudes. An ecosystem consists of the biological community that occurs in some locale, and the physical and chemical factors that make up its non-living or abiotic environment. All living organisms are a part of both a biotic community and an ecosystem. Ecosystems are what sustain both humans and animals, providing them with energy, nutrients, oxygen, water and shelter, among other things. Ecosystems don’t have strict boundaries or sizes; they can range from something as small as a dead tree stump to something as large as the ocean.

Shashank Shekhar Pathak

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