Living Worlds and Ecosystems

Overview & Synopsis

The ecosystem is an essential biological concept linking the living and the inanimate. Each ecosystem is characterized by its own biodiversity, including viruses because of their essential ecological and evolutionary role, and physical environment. In addition to these biotic and abiotic components, what other distinguishing features characterize any ecosystem? Here I propose seven distinctive features that are inherent to any ecosystem: biodiversity, physical environment, hierarchy, interactivity, openness, "homecostasis", and evolutionary. From these hallmarks, I define the ecosystem as a specific dynamic set of living and non-living worlds that functions as a hierarchical, open, and evolving system. This complex web of interactions can be graphically represented as a triangle or tetrahedron reflecting the dynamic equilibrium between all the worlds. Finally, I propose a new way of graphically linking the ecosystem with biodiversity.