Environment and Ecosystem
We have often heard that saving the environment is important to save our planet. The environment sustains the life of living organisms. In a broader sense, the environment is the surrounding in which living organisms live, on the other hand, the ecosystem is an organized system of organisms in which living organisms interact with the environment. Environment refers to the area where organisms live but the ecosystem is the organized community of living beings where biotic and abiotic elements are in continuous interaction with each other.
The environment is everything around us, including living organisms and nonliving beings such as soil, air, water, etc. The environment helps nourish life on Earth. But, the ecosystem is a community of living beings and nonliving components interacting with each other.
Environment Vs Ecosystem
What is the Environment?
The environment is everything that surrounds us, it is the area we live in, at a given point in time. It enables us to live on earth by sustaining life. It comprises all the physical, chemical, and natural forces that exist on our planet. The environment is derived from the word ‘environ’ which means surrounding in French. The biotic components of the environment are all organisms like birds, animals, human beings, reptiles, including the microorganisms like bacteria, algae, viruses, and so on. The abiotic components of the environment are soil, land, mountain, river, cloud, air, including physical components like temperature, humidity, and so on. The environment is very crucial for the good health and sustenance of life on Earth.
However, over the past few years’ human activities, modernization, and industrialization have deteriorated the environmental conditions. Deforestation, air pollution, acid rain, soil erosion are the consequences of environmental imbalance that also affect the life of living organisms. It is very important to look after the environment and take measures to save it and keep it healthy.
What is an Ecosystem?
The ecosystem is considered the structural and functional unit of ecology. It is a community where the living and nonliving components of the environment are in continuous interaction. It can be termed as the chain of interactions taking place between living organisms and the environment. It can be small or huge. It can be an oasis in the desert or an ocean that covers thousands of miles. It is responsible for maintaining stability within the environment. An ecosystem is either aquatic, that which exists in the water or terrestrial, which means land-based ecosystems. Different land-based ecosystems are forests, grassland, tundra, and desert. An aquatic ecosystem is either freshwater or marine. All biotic and abiotic components are interrelated in an ecosystem. It is always in a state of continuous evolution.
Importance of learning Environmental Studies by Students
The environment is the one common home of every living being on the planet and beyond. Environment makes living possible and plausible for human beings, flora and fauna as well. As a result, the very basis of our existence should be preached and treated with care and love.
Learning about the Environment helps students to understand the importance and our responsibility towards our ecosystem and environment as a whole. And they learn to protect the environment and nurture the values of a clean, green, and safe planet.
Environmental studies help students to develop their emotional cognizance, sensitivity, and sensibility towards Environment. This helps build a solid foundation to ensure a healthy balance of our life cycle and relationship with nature in future generations.
In this regard, Vedantu is an online learning platform for students that provides free learning material for students along with various free academic and non-academic courses.
As a result, students can kickstart their learning for all the subjects including environmental studies from the free learning Micro courses with a topic-wise explanation provided by the talented team of teaching faculty at Vedantu.
FAQs on Difference Between Environment and Ecosystem
1. What is Ecology? How is it different from the Environment and Ecosystem?
Ecology is the branch of environmental science that deals with the study of relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. It aims at understanding the vital connections between plants and animals and the world around them. Precisely, environmental science is a broader field that includes the study of elements of Earth and life sciences and ecology is a study focused on how organisms interact with each other and their surroundings. It is however aimed at looking into a very specific population of living things at once. On the other hand, the ecosystem is the community of interrelated organisms in continuous interaction with each other and the environment.
2. What is the difference between the Environment and the Ecosystem?
The environment is everything around us, including living organisms and nonliving beings such as soil, air, water, etc. The environment helps nourish life on Earth. But, the ecosystem is a community of living beings and nonliving components interacting with each other.
3. What are the components of the Environment?
Biotic and abiotic are the two components of the environment. The biotic components of the environment are all organisms like birds, animals, human beings, reptiles, including the microorganisms like bacteria, algae, viruses, and so on. The abiotic components of the environment are soil, land, mountain, river, cloud, air, including physical components like temperature, humidity, and so on.
4. What are the types of Ecosystems?
An ecosystem is either aquatic, that which exists in the water or terrestrial, which means land-based ecosystems. Different land-based ecosystems are forests, grassland, tundra, and desert. An aquatic ecosystem is either freshwater or marine.
5. How long will it take for students to read and understand the difference between Environment and Ecosystem from this article of Vedantu?
Vedantu provides concise information that is easy to understand for all the students and is precise at the same time. As a result, each word holds value. Therefore, it will take not more than half an hour or 30 minutes for students to understand and learn about Environment, ecosystem and differentiate between the two with ease, and without fail.
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Vedantu provides free access to an excellent quality of study material for students of all classes to learn and score high marks in their exams. In this regard, students can find NCERT Solutions, Sample Question Papers and Previous Year’s question papers solved by the expert and experienced teachers at Vedantu, Important Questions, Revision notes and keynotes, Reference Solutions of important books like HC Verma, Exemplar, Lakhmir Singh, RD Sharma, RS Aggarwal and many others as well. Learning from this vast yet accurate information will help students to enhance their excellence to a level beyond perfection.
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At Vedantu students can also find various learning courses to prepare for competitive exams like IIT JEE (Mains and Advanced), NEET, Olympiad exams and other engineering entrance exams. In this regard, students can find foundation courses for IIT JEE and crash courses for grade 10 and NEET with a topper level preparation in just 70 days for an affordable price by the best teachers on the field. Students also get to experience Live Learning that includes Live and interactive Quizzing, Live Doubt sessions, Live and interactive classes for a once in a lifetime experience. Interested students can also apply for the Vedantu scholarship that Vedantu provides for students who are worthy and in need. Students can either register at vedantu.com or can download the Vedantu app available at the play store and app store to begin their best academic adventure of life.
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Yes! Vedantu also provides a variety of excellent courses for junior students like Coding classes for the students of classes 1 to 8. Several Personalised learning courses are also available on the platform for little kids like English reading course, Maths Classes, Spoken English course for age 4 to 8 At Vedantu, Students get a Vedantu Improvement Promise (VIP) where they can assure to get their money back without any questions asked if they do not track any progress by learning from the courses provided by Vedantu.
9. Which classes include Environment and Ecosystem as a part of their syllabus for students?
Students can find Environment and Ecosystem in their textbooks right from the beginning of their learning of Class 3 to 6 in the subject Environmental studies EVS and other language subjects as well. In further Classes of 7 to 10, students can find these topics in their science books especially in biology and in social science subjects like geography etc. For the students who take Biology and environment as their subject in senior classes, students will learn about these topics with every detail. Apart from this, Environment is the base of our existence and therefore adds value to our learning and responsibility towards our planet and life. Therefore, it is the responsibility of every student to understand and learn about the environment and ecosystem to protect the same.
