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An ecosystem is a group of animals, plants and microorganisms that live together. The group of each type of living thing is called a community, and the place that they live is called a habitat.

So we have communities of rabbits and foxes that live in a woodland habitat. These and all the other living things there make up the ecosystem.

A community of animals, plants and microorganisms, together with their habitat is called an ecosystem.

For example, a pond ecosystem may consist of a pond habitat, inhabited by aquatic plants, microorganisms in the mud at the bottom, fish in the water and a heron on the bank.

Some ecosystems like coral reefs, rainforests and woodlands have lots of communities of living things. Others like deserts and the polar regions (North and South Poles) have far fewer.

Changes to any one organism in an ecosystem can alter another. If all the foxes in a habitat are killed, then the number of rabbits might increase quickly. If the fish in a pond are all caught then the heron would not have any food. It would have to fly away and find a new habitat. So all populations in an ecosystem depend upon each other.

Research an ecosystem anywhere in the world. Here are a few examples you may wish to find out more about:

• forest ecosystem
• marine ecosystem
• grassland ecosystem

Create a poster or presentation explaining where your ecosystem is found, what lives there and how it may have changed in the past or change in the future.