Encountering unfamiliar biological terms, an unprepared reader may experience difficulty. That is why it is worth immediately defining the term “biota”. These are all living organisms that exist in a certain area at one time or another.
The meaning and origin of the term
Translated from the ancient Greek word "biote" means life, and this is what distinguishes the concept of "biota" from the term "biocenosis", which applies only to communities, between which all members can be traced to stable connections. Biota can include many different biocenoses related in a variety of ways.
Biota is called not so much a community as the entire biological mass, limited to a specific geographical area, with stable climatic conditions and constant physical characteristics.
Biota is an ecological system that occupies an intermediate stage between a smaller biocenosis and a comprehensive biosphere. However, it is not only a matter of size, since there is also the concept of microbiota, which includes microorganisms that inhabit the human body.
The term itself was first introduced into scientific use by the largest American biologist Frederick Clements in 1916, however, this term acquired its current content a little later.
Biota classification
Biology implies accurate knowledge of a particular type of interaction of living organisms on a specific area of the earth's surface. On this basis, biota species are classified. Based on the fact that biota are organisms living in a particular climate, its composition will be inextricably linked with climatic zones and belts.
Ecologists distinguish the following types:
- tundra;
- taiga;
- swamps;
- meadows;
- deciduous forest;
- coniferous forest;
- desert;
- high plateaus;
- small terrestrial biomes;
- various types of aquatic biomes (ocean, river, lake, coral reef).
Thus, biota is a collection of living organisms, united at one time in one place, in certain geographical conditions. Organisms of all shapes and sizes, from viruses to large mammals, including humans, can be part of the biome.