Perspectives of the Soil Ecosystem Ecosystem - complex of a community and its environment functioning as an ecological unit in nature. It is a self-sustaining ecological unit.
Soils are an ecosystem.
See diagram of the soil ecosystem in National Geographic, Sept. 1984, Vol. Ecotessera - a unit that includes both the soil and the vegetation above the soil. 4.1 on p. 144 and Fig. 4.2 on p. 145 of Buol et al.