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How is a biological community different from an ecosystem?

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Diagram showing energy flow in a food chain from a tree to a caterpillar, then to a bird, and finally to microbes, with red arrows illustrating energy transfer and heat loss at each stage. — community ecology Energy transfer and heat loss along a food chain.

In the study of community ecology, it is important to distinguish between a biological community and an ecosystem, as they represent different levels of ecological organization.

Biological Community: A community is an assemblage of interacting populations of various species living within a particular area or habitat. The primary focus is on the living (biotic) component—the organisms themselves—and their complex relationships, such as competition, predation, and mutualism. Abiotic factors are excluded from this definition.123
Ecosystem: An ecosystem is a broader concept that encompasses the biological community of an area together with its physical (abiotic) environment. This includes the flow of energy, nutrients, water, and gases, as well as factors like climate and soil.23

In essence, while a community consists only of the living organisms interacting in a specific location, an ecosystem integrates those living organisms with the nonliving environment to function as a single ecological unit.43