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Dieren en planten

Mens en Milieu

Biotopes

     
North Seamudflatssalt marshes

beach
harbours
sea dikes

dunes
verges
grassland

fresh water		  
   
     

You live in a house, on a street, in a neighborhood, in a city, in a country and on a continent. Just like the human situation, living areas in ecology can be viewed at various levels. Biotopes are medium-scaled living areas. In a biotope, the climate and the geographic circumstances are more or less uniform. This makes it easy to distinguish living communities of plants and animals of different biotopes from one another. For example, the fish community of the open North Sea is very different from that of the Wadden Sea. Within a biotope (such as the coastal region), habitats (such as beaches, beach ridges and old dunes) can be identified on a smaller scale.

  • Classification of ecosystems and communities of organisms

    When distinguishing different ecosystems and living communities on different scales, ecologists use various terms. Below is a number of definitions, although the literature is not always unaminous.

    unit characteristic examples
    biome world scale; uniform climate zone and geographical circumstances (seen globally) desert, tropical rain forest, tropical ocean
    biotope regional scale; uniform (meso) climate and geographical circumstances (seen globally) temperate coastal sea (North Sea), tidal region in the temperate zone (Wadden Sea), coastal regions in NW-Europa
    habitat local scale; (micro)climate and geographical circumstances (seen globally) beach, beach ridge, young dunes, old dunes
    animal community characteristic, more or less uniform, group of several species of animals that live in a habitat benthic animals of sandy North Sea bottoms, wading birds, harbour fauna
    plant community (vegetation) characteristic, more or less uniform, group of several species of plants that live in a habitat salt marsh plants, heather vegetation, meadow flowers
    living community characteristic, more or less uniform, group of several species of plants and animals that live together in a habitat flora and fauna of slat marshes, flora and fauna of damp dune valleys