Biotope
Definition of Biotope:
A biotope is a physical habitat with its associated biological community.
This is the common definition for Biotope, other definitions can be discussed in the article
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Explanation of terminology
In the definition of a biotope, a habitat is understood to be the place in which a plant or animal lives. It is defined for the marine environment according to geographical location, physiographic features and the physical and chemical environment. Relevant characteristics include salinity, wave exposure, strength of tidal streams, geology, biological zone, substratum, 'features' (e.g. crevices, overhangs, rockpools) and 'modifiers' (e.g. sand-scour, wave-surge, substratum mobility), as well as chemical conditions such as oxygen availability, nutrient concentrations and pH. In the literature, the term 'habitat' is also used to include living organisms, blurring the distinction with biotope.
The notion of 'community' may also vary between authors. Species assemblages identified by clustering and ordination are often used to distinguish biotopes. The resulting classes provide a practical representation of biological variation, although boundaries between communities may be gradual rather than discrete. In the working definition of a biotope, a community is identified as a group of organisms occurring in a particular environment and distinguishable by ecological survey from other groups. A community is normally considered as a biotic element of a biotope.
Biotope classifications address the problem of ecological scale by dividing spatial variation in environmental conditions and associated communities into standardized, mappable units. They summarise not only the type of underlying habitat, and thus the niche created, but also the dominant and structuring biological elements; hence their description does not need to contain all species in a community.
The value of the biotope concept lies also in the recognition that organisms not only respond to prevailing physical and chemical conditions, according to their species-specific tolerances, but can also modify their environment. Biotopes therefore provide spatial units that integrate environmental conditions and characteristic biological communities and can be useful for describing and understanding macroscopic properties of coastal ecosystems, such as nutrient cycling.
The concept 'biotope' should be distinguished from the concept 'ecosystem'. Although both biotope and ecosystem include biotic and abiotic components, the concepts serve different purposes. A biotope is primarily a spatial classification unit characterized by environmental conditions and an associated community, whereas the ecosystem concept emphasizes interactions, processes and flows of matter and energy between organisms and their environment.
The term 'biotope' was used in several earlier European habitat classification systems, including the CORINE Biotopes Classification. In the current European EUNIS classification, biotopes are not distinguished as a separate category; the term 'habitat type' is used for classification units characterized by environmental conditions and, at more detailed levels, biological communities. See EUNIS habitat classification.
For a detailed description of marine habitats, communities and biotopes, see the JNCC Marine Habitat Classification for Britain and Ireland.
