All Living Things Are Related in an Ecosystem

Let's look into a forest for a moment. A small aphid is sucking the sap of a tree. Then, a ladybug comes and eats it. The moment the ladybug flies away, it's trapped in a spiderweb and eaten by a spider. But before you know it, a frog eats the spider in one gulp. Next, a snake swallows the frog. An eagle watching the scene, dives from the sky and eats the snake. After the eagle dies, its body is decomposed by bacteria and becomes nourishment for the trees.

In this way, there is a complex relationship between living things and their surrounding environment, and this is called an "ecosystem." A puddle and inside a flower pot are both ecosystems, and the earth is also one huge ecosystem itself.

In an ecosystem, plants and animals are well-balanced in a give-and-take relationship. This means that if one of the living things disappears, it affects the others in some way.

In the forest, for example, if all the ladybugs are killed by a pesticide, spiders that feed on the ladybugs also won't be able to survive. Also, frogs that feed on the spiders, snakes that feed on the frogs, and eagles that eat the snakes all could disappear.

Sadly, various species of plants and animals have become extinct or are nearly extinct, and this is a warning that the huge ecosystem of our earth (we humans are part of it) has started to become out of balance.

Right now, four or five animals or plants are vanishing every hour from the earth. Meanwhile, more and more animals, including those familiar to us, are facing the danger of extinction. This means that other animals which lived on these extinct animals also face an uncertain future.

One scientist says: All living things are related to each other and form a well-balanced ecosystem. The situation that plants and animals are becoming extinct one after another is like removing one by one the screws from the body of an airplane in flight. It will be too late to start dealing with the problem after finding out the plane will fall apart in midair.

All over the world, people are making an effort to save endangered plants and animals and to increase their numbers. However, it is such a challenge to increase what has once already declined. So, we should prevent the number of plants and animals from declining in the first place.

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