Natural ecosystems, made up of abiotic factors (air, water,
rocks, energy) and biotic factors (plants, animals, and
microorganisms). The Earths biosphere, including the atmosphere
(air), hydrosphere (water), and litosphere (land), constitutes a
feedback of cybernatic system that reflects what Rene Dubos
referred to as "a co-evolutionary process" between living things
and their physical and chemical environments. Ecosystem is made
up of many smaller ecosystems interlocked through cycles of
energy and chemical elements. The flow of energy and matter
through ecosystems, therefore, is regulated by the complex
interactions of the energy, water, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen,
phosphorus, sulfur, and other cycles that are essential to the
functioning of the biosphere. (Eblen and Eblen, 1994, p. 185)
Rudolf Husar email@example.com Last updated 10/26/94.