Agro ecosystems (Components, Types, Properties)

Definition of Ecosystem

No organism or a species live alone, always there are associates influencing each other and organized  themselves  into  communities.  The  organism  of  any  community  besides  interacting  among  themselves  always have functional relationship with the external world or environment. This structural and functional  systems of communities and their environment is called ecological system, in short the ecosystem
“Interaction of living organism with environment is known as ecosystem”.

Components of an Ecosystem

There are main 2 components of ecosystem

1. Living (Biotic component)

2. Non­living (Abiotic component)

1. Biotic component­ of an Ecosystem

Autotrops and heterotrops are biotic component of ecosystem. Green plants take  simple inorganic materials and produce their own foods, This organism are called autotrops. All other form  of life which do not possess chlorophyll can’t produce their own foods and depend upon others are known as  heterotrops. e.g. Fungi, most of bacteria and animal etc.

2. Abiotic Component­ of an Ecosystem

Abiotic component are non living environment are usually of 2 types

 Materials­ like water, mineral salts, atmospheric gases etc.

 Energy­ like light, heat, stored energy in chemical bonds etc.

Types of Ecosystem 

1. Natural ecosystem  

 Terrestrial ecosystem­ Forest, desert, grassland etc.

 Aquatic ecosystem­ Fresh water, ponds, river, lake, marine, mangrove ecosystem etc.

2. Artificial Ecosystem­

Agro ecosystem, village ecosystem, town ecosystem etc.

Agro ecosystem 

Interactive of agriculture and living organism with environment is called agro ecosystem.

Components of Agro ecosystem 

Primary producer: Crops and weeds of the field are the primary producer of agro ecosystem. e.g. In a Rice  field, there are many producer like durba, mutha, syma etc also present with rice.

Consumer: Among consumer grasshoppers, aphids, bugs, ants, rats, birds, man etc are macro consumer and  frog, snake, hack are micro consumer.

Properties of Agro ecosystem 

1. Productivity­- It is net increment of values products per unit resources (land, labour, energy, capital) and  is commonly measured as annual yield /hectare.

2. Stability­  It  is  the  degree  to  which,  productivity  remain  constant,  inspite  of  normal  small  scale  fluctuation in environmental variables such as climate or in the economic condition in market.

3. Sustainability-­ It is defined as the ability of the system to maintain its productivity when subject to  stress  or  perturbation.  A  stress  is  defined  as  regular,  sometimes  continues,  relatively  small  and  predictable disturbance. e.g. Affect of growing soil salinity. A perturbation by contrast is an irregular, in  frequent relatively long and unpredictable disturbance such as drought or flood or a new pest.

4. Equitability-­ It is a measure of how evenly the produce of Agro ecosystem is distributed among its  human beneficial. The more equitable the system, the more evenly are the products to fed shared among  the population of the farm, village, regions or nation.