Ecosystem: GCSE Geography Definition

What is an ecosystem in geography?

In GCSE geography, an ecosystem is a community of biotic organisms (living things), like animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms, that interact with the abiotic (non-living) parts of their surroundings, such as temperature, light, water, and soil.

Ecosystems can be very small, like a pond, or very big, like a rainforest biome.

An area's climate impacts the variety of natural vegetation that grows there; this in turn influences the biotic life in the area. Since this is a system, any changes to one component will impact every other component. For instance, deforestation will impact the soil, biotic life, and climate.

We can investigate the relationship between organisms and their environment using fieldwork techniques such as quadrats and transects.

Key Points:

• Ecosystems have different levels of organisation, from individual organisms to populations (groups of the same species), communities (groups of different species), and the whole ecosystem.

• Large ecosystems are called biomes. These are ecosystems with general features that are spread over a large area. For example, we expect a rainforest to have warm and wet conditions, but the Amazon rainforest will have specific species and conditions compared to the rainforest of Costa Rica or Borneo.

• Species in an ecosystem are interdependent. This is because they rely on each other for food, shelter, pollination, and seed dispersal. This keeps the community stable.

• Organisms compete for resources like light, space, water, food, breeding partners and territory.

• Ecosystems recycle materials such as carbon, nitrogen and water through processes like photosynthesis, respiration, and decomposition.

Ecosystem revision resources to ace your exams

You can learn more about ecosystems in our GCSE Geography revision note pages:

• Ecosystems (AQA GCSE Geography)

• Distribution & Characteristics of Large-Scale Ecosystems (Edexcel GCSE Geography A)

• Biome Distribution & Characteristics (Edexcel GCSE Geography B)

• Ecosystems (OCR GCSE Geography B)

Meet all your GCSE Geography revision needs, improve your grades, and boost your confidence using revision resources from Save My Exams. This includes revision notes, flashcards and exam questions with student-friendly mark schemes.