This article’s title could be considered misleading in several ways. Ecosystems – which comprise the interactions between the biological, chemical, and physical aspects of the environment – have by definition been around for as long as there has been life on Earth; a ballpark four billion years, rather than just 90.
The concept of ‘the ecosystem’ has arguably become the most important concept in ecology. David M. Wilkinson plots the history and evolution of our understanding of ecosystems since the term was coined by Arthur George Tansley in 1935.