What is the difference between ecosystem and community?
Ecosystem and community are essential entities in ecology. These two entities play a significant role in maintaining the composure of the environment. A student needs to study the ecosystem and community in order to understand ecology.
The lesson provides a detailed insight into the difference between ecosystem and community with a comparison table for deeper understanding. Besides that, you will be able to learn the similarities between ecosystem and community with examples.
What Is an Ecosystem?
The ecosystem is an ecological study of the interaction between living things and non-living things in an environment. The main component of ecology is biotic factors and abiotic factors. You should note that the ecosystem does not change but can be transformed into another ecosystem.
What is Community?
Community is an ecological study that deals with the study of the population of different species living together and interacting in the same region. The community tends to comprise biotic factors only and it is highly susceptible to changes due to environmental changes.
Comparison Chart: Ecosystem vs Community
| Basic Terms | Ecosystem | Community |
| Meaning | It is an ecosystem that comprises of both living and non-living things interacting in an environment | It is the study of the population of different species living together in the same region |
| Structured by | Environmental factors, competition, and predation | Predation and competition |
| Abiotic Factors | Included | Excluded |
| Size | Comparatively larger | Comparatively smaller |
| Human Impact | Causes soil erosion, introducing new alien species, removing life form, and overgrazing | Overfishing, poaching and introducing new alien species |
| Examples | A forest, an estuary, a pond, a grassland | Different macroinvertebrates found in different types of streams or the plants and animals of a Louisiana swamp. |
| Changes in the Environmental factors | Does not change though can be transformed into another ecosystem | Tend to change due to environmental factors |
Core Differences between Ecosystem and Community
- The ecosystem is a collection of biotic and abiotic factors whereas community is a collection of biotic factors only
- An ecosystem can either be manmade or natural whereas a community is typically natural
- Ecosystem tend to be larger in parameters unlike community
- Community is susceptible to changes due to change in environmental factors whereas the ecosystem is not prone to changes but can be transformed
- The ecosystem is always a saturated system but not the community.
- The structure of the ecosystem is influenced by the interaction of biotic factors and abiotic factors whereas the community is by biotic factor interaction only.
- The ecosystem is a collection of communities whereas a community is a collection of population
Comparison Video
Summary
The core difference between ecosystem and community is that the ecosystem comprises of both abiotic and biotic factor interaction whereas the community comprises of biotic factors interaction only. The core similarity between ecosystem and community is that both have living organisms.