As Ron Hussar suggests "living things and their physical and chemical environments" are the interacting agents that comprise ecosystems. It's become increasing difficult to think of each of the usual categories that normally get studied: the atmosphere, the hydrosphere and lithosphere as separate ecosystems. We know we that each sphere's health or lack of it, contributing state of each of the other spheres.
Sections two and three of these ecology and environment pages at CloseRange are separated into two basic categories, places & beings, if for no other reason than to make it easier to focus on specific areas that need both our understanding and our participation. While educators have assisted in increasing our understanding of ecosystems, the activists and activist groups have allowed the public to keep their fingers on the pulse of the biosphere. Their content on the web only underscores the fact that Internet could play an enormous role in saving our Earth from those rich and powerful companies that care more for the bottom line than they do for sustaining the biosphere for future generations.
