Community (ecology)

Common card · No. 369044

In ecology, a community is a group or association of populations of multiple species occupying the same geographical area at the same time. The term community has a variety of uses. In its simplest form it refers to groups of organisms in a specific place or time, for example, "the fish community of Lake Ontario before industrialization". Such a grouping is also known as a biocoenosis, biotic community, biological community, ecological community, or life assemblage. Community ecology or synecology is the study of the interactions between species in communities on many spatial and temporal scales, including the distribution, structure, abundance, demography, and interactions of coexisting populations. The primary focus of community ecology is on the interactions between populations as determined by specific genotypic and phenotypic characteristics. It is important to understand the origin, maintenance, and consequences of species diversity when evaluating community ecology. Community ecology...

Read on Wikipedia · Image Mark Wipfli, Alaska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit. Public domain., Public domain