ecosystem

noun Ecology.

1. a system, or a group of interconnected elements, formed by the interaction of a community of organisms with their environment.
2. any system or network of interconnecting and interacting parts, as in a business: The success of Apple’s ecosystem depends on hardware/software integration. Manufacturers, retailers, and customers are all part of the automotive industry’s ecosystem.

noun

1. ecology a system involving the interactions between a community of living organisms in a particular area and its nonliving environment

n.

1935; see eco- + system. Perhaps coined by English ecologist Sir Arthur George Tansley (1871-1955).

n.

1. An ecological community together with its environment, functioning as a unit.

1. A community of organisms together with their physical environment, viewed as a system of interacting and interdependent relationships and including such processes as the flow of energy through trophic levels and the cycling of chemical elements and compounds through living and nonliving components of the system.

A collection of living things and the environment in which they live. For example, a prairie ecosystem includes coyotes, the rabbits on which they feed, and the grasses that feed the rabbits.