An ecosystem is a connected whole in which living beings and environmental factors interact and sustain one another. In this usage, it does not refer only to the nonhuman natural world, but to flows of matter and energy that move across multiple domains. One formulation emphasizes three interlinked ecosystems: environment, society, and mind. The term therefore describes a broader pattern of relations rather than a single bounded natural setting.
The concept also highlights that ecosystems are shaped not only by competition but by cooperation. A large share of Earth’s biomass is said to depend on mutualistic relationships: nearly all plants in grasslands, wastelands, and forests have intimate symbioses with fungi at their roots; many corals rely on intracellular algae; many flowering plants require insect pollination; and many animals cannot digest without communities of gut microbes. These examples present ecosystems as collaborative and co-evolving assemblages, in contrast to views that reduce life to survival of the fittest.
The word is also used more broadly to point to newly emerging ecologies of harmful or unstable phenomena, such as AI slop, deepfake pornography, and radioactive or harmful rare-earth mining sites. In this sense, ecosystem can name the interdependent structures through which technologies, social systems, information, and material extraction circulate.