Levels of organisation in an ecosystem

• An ecosystem is made up of all the living organisms in a particular environment together with the non-living components such as soil, air and water.
• A habitat is where a particular organism lives in an ecosystem.
• A population is made up of all the individuals of the same species in a habitat.
• A community is made up of all the populations of different organisms that live in the same habitat.
• Feeding relationships within a community can be represented by food chains. All food chains begin with a producer that synthesises molecules. This is usually a green plant, which absorbs light to make glucose.
• A food web can be used to understand the interdependence of species within an ecosystem in terms of food sources.
• Producers are eaten by primary consumers, which in turn may be eaten by secondary consumers and then tertiary consumers.
• Consumers that kill and eat other animals are predators, and those eaten are prey. In a community the numbers of predators and prey rise and fall in cycles.