Class notes Zoology , Chemistry , Botany , English

Ecosystem:

Ecosystem is that it is a community or group of living organisms that live in and interact with
each other in a specific environment.

The structure of an ecosystem is characterized into:

➢ Biotic Components

➢ Abiotic Components

Abiotic Components:

Abiotic components are the non-living component of an ecosystem. It includes air, water, soil,
minerals, sunlight, temperature, nutrients, wind, altitude, turbidity, etc.

Biotic Components:

Biotic components refer to all living components in an ecosystem. Based on nutrition, biotic
components can be categorized into autotrophs, heterotrophs and saprotrophs (or decomposers)

➢ Producers

include all autotrophs such as plants. They are called autotrophs as they can produce food
through the process of photosynthesis. Consequently, all other organisms higher up on the food
chain rely on producers for food.

➢ Consumers or heterotrophs are organisms that depend on other organisms for food.
Consumers are further classified into primary consumers, secondary consumers and tertiary
consumers.

Primary consumers

Primary consumers are always herbivores as they rely on producers for food.

Secondary consumers: