biological components of an environment An ecosystem is generally an area within the natural environment in which physical abiotic factors of the environment such as rocks and soil function together along with biotic organisms such as plants and animals to create a stable system Ecosystems usually form a number of food webs The fundamental idea behind ecosystems is that there are interactions not only between organisms of different types but also between organisms and their environment Thus the success of a population a group of organisms in an area belonging to the same species in a certain ecosystem depends on two things Fig 1 An bis eats a frog that it plucked from the water First the success of a population depends on whether or not the environment abiotic factors can support the species that makes up this particular population For example frogs need a great deal of moisture to survive so frog populations are more successful in wet climates Second the success of a population depends on the way that species interacts with other organisms In other words every population depends on the entire community of different populations For example frogs can only live where there are large insect populations otherwise they starve However frog populations will be more or less successful depending on the size of frog eating predator populations in the area too this includes the number of wolves snakes and large birds which depend on frogs for food Comprehension Questions 1 According to the text what is an ecosystem An ecosystem is gen 2 According to the text what is a population 3 What are the two factors which control the success of a population in an ecosystem