Healthy ecosystems provide important “services,” like clean air and water, healthy forests and farms, and habitat for our plants and animals. British Columbia contains a diverse range of ecosystems that support thousands of individual plant and animal species.
An ecosystem is a collection of communities of both living and non-living things that are connected. The biotic elements in an ecosystem include living things such as plants and animals. The abiotic elements found in an ecosystem include non-living things like land forms or climate.
Terrestrial ecosystems are found on land and include vegetation, ecosystems, soil, terrain and wildlife habitat.
Aquatic ecosystems are found in bodies of water like streams, lakes, oceans and marshes.