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# ecosystem

«ecosystem» in Mova's school dictionary: **all the living things in one place — plants, animals…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

### part of speech

noun (an ecosystem, ecosystems)

### meaning for a pupil

1) An ecosystem is all the living things in one place — plants, animals, fungi and tiny germs — together with the non-living things around them, like water, soil, air and sunlight, all affecting each other. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/ecosystem/#m1)

2) (figurative) An ecosystem is a group of things or companies that work closely together, like apps, phones and computers made to work together. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/ecosystem/#m2)

### sense in the lessons

In science lessons pupils study ecosystems such as ponds, forests, coral reefs, deserts and the Australian bush; they learn about food chains, producers, consumers and decomposers, and how one change (pollution, a new species) affects the whole system. In everyday talk «tech ecosystem» means products that work together. Phrases: «a balanced ecosystem», «damage the ecosystem», «marine ecosystem».

### examples

- A pond is a small ecosystem. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/ecosystem/#x1)
- The Great Barrier Reef is a huge ecosystem. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/ecosystem/#x2)
- Rabbits harmed the Australian ecosystem when they spread. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/ecosystem/#x3)
- Every living thing in an ecosystem depends on others. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/ecosystem/#x4)
- Pollution can damage the whole ecosystem. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/ecosystem/#x5)
- We built a mini ecosystem in a jar. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/ecosystem/#x6)
- Removing wolves changed the ecosystem of Yellowstone. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/ecosystem/#x7)
- My phone and tablet are part of the same ecosystem. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/ecosystem/#x8)

### note

Countable: an ecosystem (use «an» because it starts with a vowel sound). Pronounced «EE-koh-sis-tem». An ecosystem includes non-living parts; a «habitat» is just the home of one kind of living thing; a «community» is only the living things.

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «ecosystem» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/E/ecosystem/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.