Living Agent Inventory: Ecosystems

Last modified: Sat 4/26/97 0030 PDT

Canon Terms	Object	Classes	Ecosystem; Biosphere
		Instances	EarthBiosphere
	Event	Classes	(none)
		Instances	(none)

An ecosystem is a Living Agent which emerges, within a particular region of Earth's surface, from the interaction among organisms and between organisms and their physical environment (i.e. the non-living matter and energy which surrounds them).

• You can learn about ecosystems here:
• Neighborhoods (The Franklin Institute)
• General Ecology (Odyssey Expeditions)

A biosphere is the global ecosystem of a planet, i.e. an ecosystem that is not restricted to a subregion of the planet's surface.

Earth's biosphere (the global ecosystem of Earth) is the only biosphere discovered so far by humans.

• You can learn about Earth's biosphere here:
• Mission to Planet Earth (NASA)
• Global State of the Environment Report 1997 (UNEP)