What term describes all the different organisms that interact in an ecosystem?

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The term that describes all the different organisms that interact in an ecosystem is community. In biological terms, a community encompasses all the various populations of different species living and interacting in a particular area. This interaction includes relationships such as predation, competition, and symbiosis. A community does not refer to just one species but rather the diverse group of plants, animals, fungi, and microorganisms that coexist and interact in a given environment.

The concept of a community is foundational in ecology as it helps scientists understand how different species coexist and how they influence each other and their ecosystem. For example, the presence of certain plant species can affect the types of herbivores that thrive in an area, which in turn impacts the populations of predators that rely on those herbivores for food.

In contrast, the terms population, biosphere, and habitat refer to different levels of biological organization or environmental context. A population refers specifically to individuals of the same species living in a particular area, while the biosphere includes all ecosystems on Earth as a whole. A habitat describes the physical environment in which a species lives, focusing more on the location rather than the interactions among different organisms. Thus, “community” is the most accurate term for defining the entire network of different species

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