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20 - Populations and communities

from Part VI - Terrestrial Plant Ecology

Gordon B. Bonan
Gordon B. Bonan
Affiliation:
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
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Summary

Chapter summary

This chapter continues the discussion of the preceding chapter, focusing on the arrangement of individual plants in populations and multiple species in communities. The concept of a niche is central to the understanding of the organization of species across the landscape. A niche represents the components of the environment to which a species is adapted. Evolutionary pressures have led to niche differentiation in which species differ in preferences for resources and have different functional roles in communities. This is seen in the dispersion of species along resource gradients. Though vegetation can be classified into distinct communities of species, most communities intergrade continuously and exist within a continuum of populations. Species are not grouped along environmental gradients in distinct natural associations, but rather are distributed individualistically according to their own physiology and life history patterns. The manner in which plant populations are arranged into recognizable communities is critical to understanding the response of vegetation to climate change. A plant community that exists today may have no analog under different climate. Particular species enter and dominate a given locale based on prevailing climate and other environmental conditions, the occurrence of disturbance such as fire, and their own life history patterns.

Niche and species abundance

The environment is spatially heterogeneous, varying in light, temperature, soil water, nutrients, and other conditions. Just as physiological processes vary depending on the specific environmental conditions encountered by a plant, so too do plant species thrive over a specific range of environmental conditions.

Type
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Information
Ecological Climatology
Concepts and Applications
 , pp. 292 - 302
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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  • Populations and communities
  • Gordon B. Bonan, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
  • Book: Ecological Climatology
  • Online publication: 05 April 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511805530.021
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  • Populations and communities
  • Gordon B. Bonan, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
  • Book: Ecological Climatology
  • Online publication: 05 April 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511805530.021
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Populations and communities
  • Gordon B. Bonan, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
  • Book: Ecological Climatology
  • Online publication: 05 April 2013
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511805530.021
Available formats
×