Ecosystems Episode 1: What is an ecosystem?

[Music] one day in fifth grade science class not too long ago I was introduced to the concept of an ecosystem it changed my life forever not sure what an ecosystem is don't worry today we'll be heading outside to learn what ecosystems are how we classify them and why they matter to you and me let's

get started ecosystems are communities of plants animals and their surroundings they can be as large as Yellowstone National Park or as small as a single tree everything in the ecosystem is connected through a network of interactions which allow energy and nutrients to flow throughout the entire system for example let's think about a forest trees turn sunlight

in nutrients into leaves branches and fruits which provide food and shelter for animals these animals help the trees grow by spreading their seeds in pollen in create nutritious soil when they produce waste or die and decompose we'll talk about all of this in more detail in future videos but for now the important

thing to remember is that ecosystems are communities of many interconnected plants animals and their surroundings we usually define ecosystems based on the types of plants and animals which can be found there there are two main types of ecosystems - restroom and aquatic terrestrial ecosystems or land-based and include habitats such as forests in

grasslands aquatic ecosystems are water based and include habitats such as lakes rivers estuaries and the ocean both of these types of ecosystems can occur in many different climates and include a wide variety of organisms depending on factors such as temperature precipitation and geographic features for example a forest and North Carolina might be home to animals such as