ecosystem

English

Etymology

From eco- +‎ system. Coined by English botanist Arthur Tansley in 1935 in a paper titled "The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts" in the journal Ecology.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈiːkəʊˌsɪstəm/
• IPA^(key): /ˈikoʊˌsɪstəm/
• Hyphenation: eco‧sys‧tem

Noun

ecosystem (plural ecosystems)

1. A system formed by an ecological community and its environment that functions as a unit.
   • 2012 January, Donald Worster, “A Drier and Hotter Future”, in American Scientist‎^[1], volume 100, number 1, page 70:

     Phoenix and Lubbock are both caught in severe drought, and it is going to get much worse. We may see many such [dust] storms in the decades ahead, along with species extinctions, radical disturbance of ecosystems, and intensified social conflict over land and water. Welcome to the Anthropocene, the epoch when humans have become a major geological and climatic force.

2. The interconnectedness of organisms (plants, animals, microbes) with each other and their environment.
3. (business, marketing) A network of interconnected organisations that resembles a natural ecosystem due to the complex interdependencies.

   The company’s ecosystem mainly comprises its supply chain, customers, end consumers and competitors.

4. (India, Indian politics, Internet slang) A community of social media users who support a certain ideology.
   • 2022, Rahul Shivshankar, Times of India[2]

     It (The Kashmir Files) is being described by the leftist “liberal” ecosystem as a movie that peddles bigotry against Muslims.

   • 2022, Angshuman Choudhury, Suraj Gogoi, Scroll.in[3]

     There is a certain duality in how the Hindutva ecosystem is pushing the anti-hijab discourse into the mainstream.

Hypernyms

• system

Derived terms

• ecosystem engineer

Translations

system of an ecological community and its environment

• Armenian: էկոհամակարգ (hy) (ēkohamakarg)
• Assamese: পৰিৱেশ তন্ত্ৰ (poriwex tontro)
• Asturian: ecosistema m
• Belarusian: экасістэ́ма f (ekasistéma)
• Bengali: বাস্তুসংস্থান (bastuśoṅsthan), বাস্তুতন্ত্র (bastutontro)
• Breton: trevreizhad
• Bulgarian: екосисте́ма f (ekosistéma)
• Burmese: ဂေဟစနစ် (geha.ca.nac)
• Catalan: ecosistema (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 生態系／生态系 (zh) (shēngtàixì), 生态系 (zh) (shēngtàixì), 生態系統／生态系统 (zh) (shēngtài xìtǒng), 生态系统 (zh) (shēngtài xìtǒng)

  Min Nan: 生態系／生态系 (seng-thài-hē)

• Czech: ekosystém (cs) m
• Danish: økosystem (da) n
• Dutch: ecosysteem (nl) n
• Esperanto: ekosistemo
• Estonian: ökosüsteem (et)
• Finnish: ekosysteemi (fi)
• French: écosystème (fr) m
• Galician: ecosistema m
• Georgian: ეკოსისტემა (eḳosisṭema)
• German: Ökosystem (de) n
• Greek: οικοσύστημα (el) n (oikosýstima)
• Gujarati: નિવસન તંત્ર (nivsan tantra)
• Hawaiian: kaiaola
• Hindi: पारितंत्र (pāritantra)
• Hungarian: ökoszisztéma (hu)
• Icelandic: vistkerfi (is) n
• Ido: ekosistemo (io)
• Irish: éiceachóras
• Italian: ecosistema (it) m
• Japanese: 生態系 (せいたいけい, seitaikei)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Kannada: ಪರಿಸರ ವ್ಯವಸ್ಥೆ (kn) (parisara vyavasthe)
• Kazakh: экожүйе (ékojüie)
• Korean: 생태계(生態系) (ko) (saengtaegye)
• Latin: oecosystema n
• Latvian: ekosistēma f
• Lithuanian: ekosistema f
• Macedonian: екосистем m (ekosistem)
• Malay: ekosistem (ms)
• Malayalam: ആവാസവ്യവസ്ഥ (āvāsavyavastha)
• Maori: pūnaha hauropi
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: økosystem (no) n

  Nynorsk: økosystem n

• Occitan: ecosistèma (oc) m
• Persian: اکوسیستم (fa) (ekusistem)
• Polish: ekosystem (pl) m
• Portuguese: ecossistema (pt) m
• Romanian: ecosistem (ro) n
• Russian: экосисте́ма (ru) f (ekosistéma)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: екосу́став m, екосѝсте̄м m

  Roman: ekosústav (sh) m, ekosìstēm (sh) m

• Sinhalese: පරිසර පද්ධති (parisara paddhati)
• Slovene: ekosistem (sl) m
• Spanish: ecosistema (es) m
• Swedish: ekosystem (sv) n
• Tamil: சூழல் மண்டலம் (cūḻal maṇṭalam), சூழற்றொகுதி (cūḻaṟṟokuti) (Sri Lanka)
• Telugu: పర్యావరణ వ్యవస్థ (te) (paryāvaraṇa vyavastha)
• Thai: ระบบนิเวศ (th) (rá-bòp-ní-wêet)
• Turkish: ekosistem (tr)
• Ukrainian: екосисте́ма (uk) f (ekosystéma)
• Vietnamese: hệ sinh thái (vi) (系生態)
• Zazaki: ekosistem

Further reading

• ecosystem on Wikipedia.Wikipedia