An ecosystem is a number of living organisms which interact with one another and with the non-living components of their environment. Large ecosystems can be divided into smaller ecosystems. For example, the marine ecosystem is composed of a variety of smaller ecosystems, including coral reef ecosystems and coastal ecosystems.
Biodiversity is used to describe the variety of life present within an ecosystem. Two similar locations may have very different degrees of biodiversity, even within the same ecosystem. For example, we might investigate two sections of the same stream and catalog the number and type of organisms present. If one section were significantly less biodiverse than another, we would wonder why, and perhaps look for sources of pollution or other factors to explain the loss of life.
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