An association is the "ultimate classification level" of ecological systems An ecosystem consists of all the organisms living in a particular area, as well as all the nonliving, physical components of the environment with which the organisms interact, such as air, soil, water, and sunlight. It is all the organisms in a given area, along with the nonliving factors with which they interact; a biological community and its. Local conditions permit several understory Understory is the term for the area of a forest which grows at the lowest height level below the forest canopy. Plants in the understory consist of a mixture of seedlings and saplings of canopy trees together with understory shrubs and herbs. Young canopy trees often persist as suppressed juveniles for decades while they wait for an opening in the species to coexist with the same overstory dominants, and associations refer to the many co-occurring species rather than just the few dominant ones.
Associations have:
- A relatively fixed floristic Floristics is a subdomain of botany and biogeography that studies distribution and relationships of plant species over geographic areas composition
- A relatively uniform physiognomy Physiognomy is the assessment of a person's character or personality from their outer appearance, especially the face. The term physiognomy can also refer to the general appearance of a person, object or terrain, without reference to its implied characteristics
- A tendency to occur in a consistent type of localized habitat A habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant or other type of organism. It is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds (influences and is utilized by) a species population.[citation needed]
Categories: Ecological definitions |
