An ecosystem is a community of plants and animals interacting with each other in a given area and also with their non living environments. The non living environments include weather or climate and soil etc. The ecosystem relates to the way that all different organisms live in close proximity to each other and how they interact with each other. For instance in an ecosystem where there are both rabbits and foxes these two creatures are in a relationship where the fox eats the rabbit in order to survive. This relationship has a knock on effect with the other creatures and plants that live in the same or similar areas. For instance the more rabbits that foxes eat the more the plants may start to thrive because there are fewer rabbits to eat them. Ecosystems can be huge with many hundreds of different animals and plants all living in a delicate balance or they could be relatively small. In particularly harsh places in the world such as the North and South Poles the ecosystems are relatively simple because there are only a few types of creatures that can withstand the freezing temperatures and harsh living conditions. Ecosystems also consist of creatures that mutually benefit from each other. An ecosystem can be destroyed by a stranger. The stranger could be a rise in temperature or sea level or climate change. The stranger can affect the natural balance and can harm or destroy the ecosystem. It is a bit unfortunate but ecosystems have been destroyed and vanished by man made activities like deforestation and natural activities like floods or storms. The non living factors or the physical environment prevailing in an ecosystem form the abiotic components. These are climatic factors that include rain and wind etc. The living organisms such as plants animals and microorganisms that are present in an ecosystem form the biotic components. Among biotic components at a basic functional level ecosystem generally contains primary producers which are plants capable of harvesting energy from the sun through the process called photosynthesis. This energy then flows through the food chain. After producers come consumers in the ecosystem. There are different classes or categories of consumers. These consumers feed on the captured energy. The autotrophic components include all green plants which fix the radiant energy of the sun and manufacture food from inorganic substances. The heterotrophic components include non green plants and all animals which take food from autotrophs. Herbivorous are animals that are purely dependent for their food on producers or green plants. Carnivores are flesh eating animals and the omnivores are the animals that are adapted to consume herbivores as well as plants as their food. Secondary consumers are sparrows and wolves etc. These are the top carnivores that prey upon other carnivores and herbivores as well as omnivores. Lions and Hawks are some of the tertiary or top consumers. Parasites and scavengers are also included in the consumers that utilize living tissues or dead remains of animals and plants as their food. Decomposers work at the bottom of the food chain. Dead tissues and waste products are produced at all levels. Scavengers and decomposers not only feed on this energy but also break organic matter back into its organic constituents. It is the microbes that finish the job of decomposition.