Final answer:
An ecosystem is a set of interacting components, including both living and non-living factors, that form a complex whole.
Step-by-step explanation:
An ecosystem is a set of interacting components that form a complex whole, including its community of living things (biotic components) and nonliving environmental factors such as water and sunlight (abiotic components). The biotic part of an ecosystem is called a community, which consists of all the populations of all the species that live and interact in the ecosystem. The abiotic and biotic parts of an ecosystem are linked together by flows of energy and cycles of nutrients through the system.