Ecosystem Meaning
/ˈiːkəʊˌsɪstəm/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounA system formed by an ecological community and its environment that functions as a unit.
nounThe interconnectedness of organisms (plants, animals, microbes) with each other and their environment.
Sentence Examples
The coastal ecosystem of British Columbia is rapidly declining.
The construction of the dam created an artificial lake that destroyed a whole ecosystem.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Pollution can damage a fragile ____ like a coral reef or forest.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The coastal ____ of British Columbia is rapidly declining.
Word Origin & History
From eco- + system. Coined by English botanist Arthur Tansley in 1935 in a paper titled The Use and Abuse of Vegetational Concepts in the journal Ecology.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"Phoenix and Lubbock are both caught in severe drought, and it is going to get much worse. We may see many such [dust] storms in the decades ahead, along with species extinctions, radical disturbance of ecosystems, and intensified social conflict over land and water. Welcome to the Anthropocene, the epoch when humans have become a major geological and climatic force."
— 2012 January 26, Donald Worster, “A Drier and Hotter Future”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 1, archived from the original on 26 Jan 2012, page 70:
"It [The Kashmir Files] is being described by the leftist “liberal” ecosystem as a movie that peddles bigotry against Muslims."
— 2022 March 21, Rahul Shivshankar, “The real reason why the Left eco-system has launched a scurrilous attack on the movie Kashmir Files”, in Times of India:
"There is a certain duality in how the Hindutva ecosystem is pushing the anti-hijab discourse into the mainstream."
— 2022 February 17, Angshuman Choudhury, Suraj Gogoi, “Hijab ban: How some liberals are sleepwalking into the trap set by Hindutva nationalists”, in Scroll.in:
"Money mules play an important role in the scam ecosystem primarily to get money out of Singapore to the foreign syndicates and facilitate scams."
— (Can we date this quote?), “CDSA and CMA Bill Amendments”, in Singapore Police Force:
"The result, as Maria Farrell and Robin Berjon put it in a striking essay in Noema magazine, is that our online spaces are no longer open ecosystems."
— 2024 May 4, John Naughton, “The internet is in decline – it needs rewilding”, in The Guardian:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
Pollution can damage a fragile ____ like a coral reef or forest.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The coastal ____ of British Columbia is rapidly declining.