The concept of the ecosystem is highly significant in environmental anthropology because it provides a framework for understanding the complex relationship between human beings, other living organisms, and the physical environment. An ecosystem consists of living organisms interacting with one another and with non-living components such as soil, water, air, climate, and landforms. In anthropology, this concept has helped scholars move beyond the study of human societies as isolated cultural units and examine how human life is shaped by, and in turn transforms, ecological conditions. Environmental anthropology particularly uses the ecosystem approach to understand adaptation, subsistence, resource use, population distribution, environmental change, and cultural responses to ecological problems. The ecosystem concept was developed in ecology, particularly through the work of A. G. Tansley, who introduced the term “ecosystem” in 1935. Anthropologists subsequently incorporated ecological thinking into the study of human societies. Julian Steward played an important role through his concept of cultural ecology. He argued that culture should be studied in relation to the environment, technology, and patterns of resource use. His approach emphasized the ways in which societies adapt to particular ecological conditions. Later, anthropologists such as Roy Rappaport and Andrew Vayda developed ecological approaches that examined human communities as components of larger ecosystems. One major application of the ecosystem concept in anthropology is the study of human-environment relationships. Human beings depend upon ecosystems for food, water, shelter, energy, medicines, and other resources. At the same time, human activities modify ecosystems through agriculture, hunting, fishing, pastoralism, urbanization, mining, and industrial development. Anthropology studies these interactions by examining how cultural practices influence the use and management of environmental resources. For example, forest-dependent communities may develop detailed knowledge of plants, animals, soils, and seasonal changes. Their social institutions and cultural traditions may regulate access to forests and contribute to sustainable resource use. The ecosystem approach is also important in understanding human adaptation. Human populations inhabit extremely diverse environments, including deserts, mountains, forests, islands, grasslands, Arctic regions, and tropical environments. People develop biological, technological, economic, and cultural adaptations that enable them to survive under different ecological conditions. For example, pastoral communities in arid regions have developed mobile