Man made Ecosystem
Introduction to man made ecosystem
Introduction to man made ecosystem
A system in which there is significant interaction between living and non living organisms is called as an ecosystem. An ecosystem is broadly of two types - terrestrial and aquatic depending on the place where it is present. A forest ecosystem is an example of terrestrial ecosystem and a pond is an example of aquatic ecosystem. Each ecosystem is unique in its composition and contains several species and the number of species interacting in each ecosystem varies according to the size of an ecosystem.
An ecosystem which is made and controlled by human beings but meets all the criteria of an ecosystem is called man made ecosystem. With out human intervention and supervision a man made ecosystem will be disintegrated. A man made ecosystem is comparatively less complex when compared to a natural ecosystem. Examples of man made ecosystem includes agriculture based systems like a garden, orchards; products of land development like a lake, canals, park; products of observation and lively requirements like an aquarium, a building, and a city.
Artificial ecosystems are created to mimic the natural ecosystems. Different artificial ecosystems are crop land and zoo (artificial terrestrial ecosystem) and dams and aquarium (artificial aquatic ecosystems).
In natural ecosystem the components are created and governed through the biological laws, for example the predators feed on prey whereas in artificial ecosystem everything needs to be planned and executed. The proportion of the components of the ecosystem needs to defined appropriately to maintain the equilibrium of the artificial ecosystem. The factors like number and type of animals and plant life, content of the soil, temperature, amount of sunlight, energy input, amount of water, the boundary of the ecosystem, etc. need to well defined for artificial ecosystem or else the ecosystem cannot sustain. Each and every component of the artificial ecosystem is to be provided externally by man.
man made ecosystem:Aquarium
Is a man made ecosystem that consists of a glass tank or bowl filled with water and supports living organisms such as fish, some small plants is called as an aquarium and represents a small scale aquatic ecosystem. An aquarium survives on dissolved oxygen content and fishes form dominating organisms in this ecosystem. Each living (fishes, fungal plants, etc.,) and non living organisms (sand, water) in this man made ecosystem interact closely with each other and the change in ones content significantly affects other.
A park or little garden is a man made ecosystem in our back yards is best example for man made terrestrial ecosystem. It predominantly contains plants as its constituents and also hosts birds, rodents and other small species. It also witnesses some symbiotic microbes which live on dead material of plants. Non living components of this man made ecosystem like water are provided by human and plants synthesize food utilizing natural resources like sunlight.
