Community

The frog population, together with populations of pond plants, insects and other species, forms a community: the living things that share the area and interact. A species is a group of organisms that can breed together to produce fertile offspring.

A community contains the populations of different species living and interacting in the same area. A pond community might include populations of frogs, newts, fish, pondweed, algae and microorganisms.

Taken together, these living populations form a community. To describe the ecosystem, include the community and its non-living surroundings, such as the soil, water and light. These non-living parts are called abiotic components; living organisms are biotic components.

A population contains individual organisms, a community contains populations, and an ecosystem contains the community together with its non-living environment. These ecological levels should not be confused with levels inside a multicellular organism, such as cells, tissues and organs.