Tiffi does some googling

_Elsa_

As soon as Tiffi walks inside her house she turns on her computer and then goes into the kitchen to get herself a drink. She sits down at her computer and types in “ecosystems”.

She is not sure what she is looking for, so she tries the first listing for ecosystems examples.

“That’s not going to work,” Tiffi thinks to herself. “I need to learn first what an ecosystem is before looking for examples.”

She continues her search and then she thinks that she might have found the best article.

‘Simple Ecosystem Definition - The simplest definition of an ecosystem is that it is a community or group of living organisms that live in and interact with each other in a specific environment. For instance, tropical forests are ecosystems made up of living beings such as trees, plants, animals, insects and micro-organisms that are in constant interaction between themselves and that are affected by other physical (sun, temperature) or chemical (oxygen or nutrients) components.

Ecosystem Scientific Definition - An ecosystem is the basic unit of the field of the scientific study of nature. According to this discipline, an ecosystem is a physically defined environment, made up of two inseparable components:

The biotope (abiotic): a particular physical environment with specific physical characteristics such as the climate, temperature, humidity, concentration of nutrients or pH.

The biocenosis (biotic): a set of living organisms such as animals, plants or micro-organisms, that are in constant interaction and are, therefore, in a situation of interdependence.’ (Source) 

So for a tropical forest an animal would have an interaction with plants or insects for food but then the plants would need the interaction of physical or chemical components in order to live? Tiffi is still confused and needs to keep reading. 

Let’s continue - How Do Natural Ecosystems Work? 

Start at the beginning - What is an ecosystem?