The Concept of the Ecosystem

In the previous two chapters we have investigated the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of organisms, using from time to time the terms ‘population’ and ‘community’. A ‘population’ was assumed to be all of the individuals of one of the species in a multi-species ‘community’, or to be a community of only one species. However, this does not define either term rigorously. We must either make a precise definition or investigate why a more casual definition is the more useful.