A fundamental concept of ecology is that living organisms are both similar to and different from each other and from nonliving things.
Living things are similar in that they rely on many of the same processes to stay alive, yet are different in the ways that these processes are carried out.
Non living things lack certain features of living organisms, such as the ability to maintain a cellular organization, carry out metabolic activity while maintaining internal stability (homeostasis) and pass on hereditary information through reproduction.
