Are habitats and ecosystems the same?

No. A habitat is the place where an organism lives—the biological, chemical, and physical conditions that sustain it—while an ecosystem is the community of living organisms in an area plus the nonliving things they interact with.

According to the Forest Preserve District of Will County (citing the U.S. EPA), a barred owl’s habitat is the forest where it lives, but that forest’s ecosystem also includes every interacting organism there along with soil, air, and water. The same pond can be a wetland habitat for fish and turtles and, at the same time, an ecosystem defined by those living and nonliving interactions.

Source: Forest Preserve District of Will County — What’s the difference?: Habitat vs. ecosystem

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