Living organisms live on the globe everywhere: in the air-ground space, the aquatic environment, soil, and even other living things. Each species in nature lives in a specific environment with which it interacts directly.
What is the habitat? In order to answer this question, we consider broader concepts: community, biocenosis and biogeocenosis. Everyone knows that plants or animals that occupy homogeneous areas of the territory and interact with each other form communities. Those, in turn, are interconnected with all organisms that live in this territory, forming a biocenosis. Interacting with
factors of inanimate nature (temperature, humidity, lighting, etc.), organisms form a single complex with a
cycle of substances and energy, which is commonly called biogeocenosis. Each species in the ecosystem eats certain foods and is a food base for other organisms
(food chain), and also survives in conditions - abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic - that are optimal for it. The habitat, which is the settlement territory of a particular taxon with clear boundaries, will also exist if suitable conditions exist. After all, it is here that all the prerequisites for the prosperity of specific microorganisms, plants or animals are created.
The range is called continuous if the species lives on the entire area suitable for its habitat, or is regularly found in its specific places. Sometimes organisms can populate isolated areas on the border of a certain territory or water area, forming the so-called island locations. If the habitat splits into several unconnected areas in such a way that animal migration and the exchange of seeds or spores in plants are impossible, then it is called intermittent, or disjunctive.
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Attack, very small in area of habitat of ancient families, genera and species that in the past occupied vast territories are called relict, for example, in
Ginkgo biloba or this. Sagovinikovye. Also, the habitat, depending on its size, can belong to the so-called cosmopolitans, if it is extensive, and endemic, if it is small.
Territories in which certain types of plants and animals live, because of the active human intervention, undergo changes, sometimes leading to their complete destruction. However, after the death of representatives of the flora and fauna that lived in this area, it is populated by new representatives of the animal and plant world. To study the resettlement define the boundaries. To do this, the map indicates the places where animals live or plants of a specific species grow, for example, a cheetah or Siberian fir. Such mapping helps to determine the distribution of plant and animal resources, the distribution of pests of crops and forest lands, disease vectors, etc.
The question of what is the habitat can be answered as follows: this is an area with clear boundaries, within which a certain taxon is widespread and goes through the full cycle of its development. Organisms exist here due to the close relationship between environmental factors and other representatives of flora and fauna.