A population in an ecosystem is defined as?

• A. A group of individuals of the same species living in the same area
• B. All organisms in the ecosystem
• C. The nonliving factors in the environment
• D. All different species in the area

Answer: (A)

A population is a group of individuals of the same species living in the same area. That means all the members are the same kind of organism and share the same space at roughly the same time. For example, all the deer in a forest form one population. This differs from all organisms in the ecosystem (which would be the whole community and include abiotic factors), the nonliving factors themselves (which are abiotic components, not living organisms), or all different species in the area (which describes the community diversity, not a single species).