ally

• Resource


  Regulator
• Physical material


  • Organic or inorganic
• Physical condition


  • Represents a physical condition to ecosystem
• Limiting factor


  Controls populations of animals and plants in an ecosystem
• Range of tolerance


  • Ability to withstand fluctuations in biotic and abiotic factors
• Species Richness


  A key feature of an ecosystem in the interactions of biotic factors
• Trophic Structure


  Represents the food relationship between the structural components of the ecosystem
• Producers


  Organisms that can manufacture their own organic compounds, sometimes called autotrophs ("self-feeders")
• Consumers


  • Primary consumers (herbivores which feed directly and only on living plants)
  • Secondary consumers (primary carnivores which feed only on plant-eating animals)
  • Tertiary and higher-level consumers (large carnivores or omnivores that feed on primary and secondary consumers, and/or producers)
• Decomposers


  Heterotrophs that feed on detritus, or dead organic plant and animal matter, known as detritivores
• Detritivores


  • Detritus feeders (ingest fragments & dead organisms, parts and organic waste)
  • Absorbers (do not ingest dead tissue or faeces, rather they absorb and endocytose)
• Decomposers do not ingest, they absorb and endocytose
• Saprotrophic


  Mode of nutrition carried out by bacteria and fungi
• Ecosystem Functions


  • Production (accumulation of organic structures)
  • Consumption (balances production and decomposition)
  • Decomposition (breakdown of complex structures)