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The two main structural features of any ecosystem are its 'species composition' and 'stratification'.
An ecosystem can be represented by depicting the producers - consumers relationship in the given ecosystem.This is also called the 'Trophic structure' of an ecosystem, wherein each animal population forms the various trophic levels.
The producers (green plants) always form the first trophic level. Herbivores, which feed on producers, are at the second trophic level followed by secondary consumers, tertiary consumers and so on.Trophic structure of an ecosystem can be described in terms of its total amount of nutrients or the amount of living material.
The amount of nutrients in the soil at any given time is referred as 'standing state' whereas the amount of living material is referred as 'standing crop'.Function
The functional attributes of an ecosystem helps to keep its component parts running together.Few important functional aspects of an ecosystem are:
Biological diversity and maintenance of stability
The numerical strength and biomass of organisms affect the functioning of ecosystem.
In ecosystems, the biotic communities usually contain a few common species represented by a large number of individuals or by a large biomass and a comparatively large number of individual species occurring in small numbers.Under stress conditions, the number of rare species is usually reduced, and only a few species may survive and their frequency of occurrence may be very high.
As a rule, the total number of species in any ecosystem is reduced under conditions of extreme stress, as found in arctic, antarctic and desert region and so on.A system is considered stable in the ecological sense if its structure and functions remain more or less the same from year to year.
A system with high species diversity and low dominance is less productive but stable. On the other hand, a system with a community with low species diversity and high dominance is more productive but unstable.