In ecology field and in general in Natural Science and Environmental Education area, the concept of ecosystem and other concepts related to its dynamics such as energy flows, nutrient cycles, food webs, interactions, stability and balance and effect of disturbances on ecosystem dynamics are fundamental.However, in conducted studies on conceptions of ecosystem, a series of difficulties and misconceptions about this concept were found at different levels of schooling.The objective of this study was to present a literature review about student's conceptions of ecosystem and the perspectives to analyze these ideas.