Question

A fundamental concept of ecology is that living organisms

Answer 1

Ecology is the study of how living things interact with each other and with their environment. Organisms depend on and are influenced by their environment, which includes both living and nonliving factors. Ecologists categorize the biological world into different levels of organization, from individual organisms to the entire biosphere.

Step-by-step explanation:

Ecology is the study of how living things interact with each other and with their environment. All organisms need energy and matter that must be obtained from the environment, so organisms are not closed systems. The environment of an organism includes biotic factors, which are the living aspects of the environment, and abiotic factors, which are the nonliving aspects of the environment. Ecologists generally organize the biological world in a nested hierarchy. Above the level of the individual organism, from the least to most inclusive, the levels of this hierarchy are the population, community, ecosystem, biome, and biosphere. The biosphere consists of every part of Earth where life exists, including the land, water, and air.

Answer 2

A fundamental concept of ecology is that living organisms are both similar to and different from each other and from nonliving things. Living things are similar in that they rely on many of the same processes to stay alive, yet are different in the ways that these processes are carried out. Non living things lack certain features of living organisms, such as the ability to maintain a cellular organization, carry out metabolic activity while maintaining internal stability (homeostasis) and pass on hereditary information through reproduction.