In ecology, a community is an assemblage of populations of different species, interacting with one another. Ernst Haeckel coined the term oekologie in 1866. ... In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biodiversity. ...

The term is used in various ways with slight differences in meaning. Sometimes it is limited to specific places, times, or subsets of organisms. For example, "the fish community of Lake Ontario before industrialization".

Another usage difference is whether a community is defined based on evolutionary taxonomy and biogeography, or based on function and behavior regardless of genetic relationships. For example, a plant community of the first type might be called "oak-hickory forests", while one of the second type might be called "temperate deciduous forests". The first sense of the term "community" is related to broad concepts such as ecozones and floristic provinces (such as the Neotropic ecozone or the Cape floristic region), while the second sense is related to biomes (such as the Temperate coniferous forests) (Akin, pp. 168-169). Look up taxonomy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Biogeography is the science which deals with patterns of species distribution and the processes that result in such patterns. ... Ecozone is a classification system of the world first proposed by Miklos Udvardy under the name biogeographical realms for conservation purposes. ... A floristic province is a geographic area with a relatively uniform composition of plant species. ... The Neotropic ecozone is a terrestrial ecoregion which includes South America, Central America, and the Caribbean. ... Fynbos in the Western Cape. ... In ecology, a biome is a major regional group of distinctive plant and animal communities best adapted to the regions physical natural environment, latitude, elevation, and terrain. ... Pine forests are an example of a temperate coniferous forests Temperate coniferous forests are a terrestrial biome found in temperate regions of the world with warm summers and cool winters and adequate rainfall to sustain a forest. ...

See also

• Community ecology
• Co-evolution
• Convergent evolution
• Evolutionary radiation
• Phage ecology#Phage community ecology
• Phylogeography
• Scientific classification

Community ecology is the study of the distribution, abundance, demography, and interactions between coexisting populations (not precisely synonymous with population ecology). ... Bumblebees and the flowers they pollinate have co-evolved so that both have become dependent on each other for survival. ... In evolutionary biology, convergent evolution is the process whereby organisms not closely related, independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Phylogeography is the attempt to take into account the geographic distribution of species in establishing their phylogeny, and to understand the geographic patterns that may result from divergence, ultimately leading to speciation. ... Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. ...

References

• Akin, Wallace E. (1991). Global Patterns: Climate, Vegetation, and Soils. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-2309-5.
• Ricketts, Taylor H., Eric Dinerstein, David M. Olson, Colby J. Loucks et al. (WWF) (1999). Terrestrial Ecoregions of North America: a conservation assessment. Island Press. ISBN 1-55963-722-6.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization for the conservation, research and restoration of the natural environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in the United States and Canada. ...

External links

• Glossary, Status and Trends of the Nation's Biological Resources, USGS.
• Glossary, ENTRIX Environmental Consultants.