Tropical Ecosystem Structure and Function

Conventionally, an ecosystem is defined as an integrated set of biological components making up a biotic community plus its abiotic environment (Odum, 1953). The basic biotic components of an ecosystem include (a) producers—the photosynthetic organisms that convert solar energy into chemical energy, (b) consumers that serve as ecosystem regulators, and (c) decomposers that recycle finite material resources. These components, in turn, are composed of species populations. The differences that one observes among ecosystem types can be studied and interpreted in terms of the storages and flows associated with each component, the role that each component assumes in the overall maintenance of that ecosystem and the response of the system to various forcing functions.