Final answer:
An ecosystem is best described as e) All biotic and abiotic factors. It includes all living organisms, their interactions with each other, and their interactions with nonliving components of the environment, such as climate and soil, which form complex relationships.
"The correct option is approximately option E"
Step-by-step explanation:
The question which best describes an ecosystem is e) All biotic and abiotic factors. An ecosystem encompasses all living organisms (biotic factors) including plants, animals, fungi, and micro-organisms as well as the nonliving (abiotic factors) components of the environment like temperature, water, soil, and air that they interact with.
These interactions involve the exchange of matter and free energy and are the foundation of ecological studies. Ecosystems illustrate the complex relationships and patterns that develop from the interactions between biotic and abiotic components.
For example, plants (a biotic factor) utilize sunlight (an abiotic factor) for photosynthesis to produce energy. The biotic and abiotic elements are intricately linked: Water availability (an abiotic factor) can affect plant growth, which in turn affects the animals (biotic factors) that rely on those plants for food. Hence, ecosystems are not simply about populations or individual species relationships, but about the comprehensive system formed by the interaction of living organisms with each other and with their physical environment.