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To establish, develop, operate and maintain for the benefit of the people of the United States an educational and scientific center in the form of a tropical botanical garden or gardens, together with such facilities as libraries, herbaria, laboratories and museums which are appropriate and necessary for encouraging and conducting research in basic and applied tropical botany.

An ecosystem consists of all the organisms - plants, animals and micro-organisms - that occur in a given area, together with the non-living elements of the environment. The term ecosystem is used because the living and non-living elements are closely interrelated in a functioning system with producing, consuming, decomposing and non-living components. An ecosystem has therefore a spatial definition (it occurs in a definable area) and a functional definition (the parts of the system are interdependent and maintain at least temporary stability).