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A biotope is an area of uniform environmental conditions providing a living place for a specific assemblage of
plants
Plants are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all curr ...
and
animals
Animals are multicellular, eukaryotic organisms in the biological kingdom Animalia. With few exceptions, animals consume organic material, breathe oxygen, are able to move, can reproduce sexually, and go through an ontogenetic stage in ...
. ''Biotope'' is almost synonymous with the term
"habitat", which is more commonly used in English-speaking countries. However, in some countries these two terms are distinguished: the subject of a habitat is a
population
Population typically refers to the number of people in a single area, whether it be a city or town, region, country, continent, or the world. Governments typically quantify the size of the resident population within their jurisdiction using a ...
, the subject of a biotope is a ''
biocoenosis
A biocenosis (UK English, ''biocoenosis'', also biocenose, biocoenose, biotic community, biological community, ecological community, life assemblage), coined by Karl Möbius in 1877, describes the interacting organisms living together in a hab ...
'' or "biological community".
It is an English
loanword
A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because th ...
derived from the German ''
Biotop
''Biotop'' is the second album by German electronic musician Asmus Tietchens, released in 1981 on Sky Records. Tietchens recorded the album at Audiplex Studios with producer and mentor Okko Bekker, who is credited as Rokko Ekbek. Departing from t ...
'', which in turn came from the Greek ''bios'' (meaning 'life') and ''topos'' ('place'). (The related word ''
geotope
A geotope is the geological component of the abiotic matrix present in an ecotope. Example geotopes might be an exposed outcrop of rocks, an erratic boulder, a grotto or ravine, a cave, an old stone wall marking a property boundary, and so forth. ...
'' has made its way into the English language by the same route, from the German ''
Geotop''.)
Ecology
The concept of a biotope was first advocated by
Ernst Haeckel
Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (; 16 February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German zoologist, naturalist, eugenicist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist and artist. He discovered, described and named thousands of new sp ...
(1834–1919), a German zoologist famous for the
recapitulation theory
The theory of recapitulation, also called the biogenetic law or embryological parallelism—often expressed using Ernst Haeckel's phrase "ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny"—is a historical hypothesis that the development of the embryo of an a ...
. In his book ''General Morphology'' (1866), which defines the term "
ecology
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
", he stresses the importance of the concept of habitat as a prerequisite for an organism's existence. Haeckel also explains that with one ecosystem, its
biota is shaped by environmental factors (such as water, soil, and geographical features) and interaction among living things; the original idea of a biotope was closely related to evolutional theory. Following this, F. Dahl, a professor at the Berlin Zoological Museum, referred to this ecological system as a "biotope" (biotop) (1908).
Biotope restoration
Although the term "biotope" is considered to be a technical word with respect to ecology, in recent years the term is more generally used in administrative and civic activities. Since the 1970s the term "biotope" has received great attention as a keyword throughout Europe (mainly Germany) for the preservation, regeneration, and creation of natural environmental settings. Used in this context, the term "biotope" often refers to a smaller and more specific ecology and is very familiar to human life. In Germany especially, activities related to regenerating biotopes are enthusiastically received. These activities include:
* making
roof garden
A roof garden is a garden on the roof of a building. Besides the decorative benefit, roof plantings may provide food, temperature control, hydrological benefits, architectural enhancement, habitats or corridors for wildlife, recreational oppo ...
s
* reconstructing rivers to restore their natural qualities
* leaving bushes or trees on farms
* building nature parks along motorways
* making school
garden
A garden is a planned space, usually outdoors, set aside for the cultivation, display, and enjoyment of plants and other forms of nature. The single feature identifying even the wildest wild garden is ''control''. The garden can incorporate both ...
s or
pond
A pond is an area filled with water, either natural or artificial, that is smaller than a lake. Defining them to be less than in area, less than deep, and with less than 30% emergent vegetation helps in distinguishing their ecology from th ...
s by considering the
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
* bearing in mind ecological considerations in private gardens
Various sectors play a part in these activities, including architecture, civil engineering, urban planning, traffic, agriculture, river engineering,
limnology
Limnology ( ; from Greek λίμνη, ''limne'', "lake" and λόγος, ''logos'', "knowledge") is the study of inland aquatic ecosystems.
The study of limnology includes aspects of the biological, chemical, physical, and geological characteristi ...
,
biology
Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...
, education,
landscape gardening
Landscape architecture is the design of outdoor areas, landmarks, and structures to achieve environmental, social-behavioural, or aesthetic outcomes. It involves the systematic design and general engineering of various structures for constructio ...
, and domestic gardening. In all fields, all sorts of people are seeking a viable way for humans to respect other living things. The term "biotope" would include a complete environmental approach.
Characteristics
The following four points are the chief characteristics of biotopes.
Microscale
A biotope is generally not considered to be a large-scale phenomenon. For example, a biotope might be a neighbouring park, a back garden, even potted plants or a fish tank on a porch. In other words, the biotope is not a macroscopic but a microscopic approach to preserving the ecosystem and biological diversity. So biotopes fit into ordinary people's daily activities and lives, with more people being able to take part in biotope creation and continuing management.
Biotope networks
It is commonly emphasised that biotopes should not be isolated. Instead biotopes need to be connected to each other and other surrounding life for without these connections to life-forms such as animals and plants, biotopes would not effectively work as a place in which diverse organisms live. So one of the most effective strategies for regenerating biotopes is to plan a ''stretch'' of biotopes, not just a ''point'' where animals and plants come and go. (Such an organic traffic course is called a
corridor
Corridor or The Corridor may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Films
* ''The Corridor'' (1968 film), a 1968 Swedish drama film
* ''The Corridor'' (1995 film), a 1995 Lithuanian drama film
* ''The Corridor'' (2010 film), a 2010 Canadia ...
.) In the stretch method, the centre of the network would be large green tracts of land: a forest, natural park, or cemetery. By connecting parcels of land with smaller biotope areas such as a green belt along the river, small town parks, gardens, or even roadside trees, biotopes can exist in a network. In other words, a biotope is an open, not a closed, system and is a practicable strategy.
Human daily life
The term "biotope" does not apply to
biosphere reserves
Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) is an intergovernmental scientific program, launched in 1971 by UNESCO, that aims to establish a scientific basis for the improvement of relationships between people and their environments.
MAB's work engag ...
, which are completely separate from humans and become the object of human admiration. Instead, it is an active part of human daily life. For example, an ornamental flower bed may be considered a biotope (though a rather small one) since it enhances the experience of daily life. An area that has many functions, such as human living space, and is home to other living things, whether plant or animal, can be considered a biosphere reserve.
Artificial
When artificial items are introduced to a biotope setting, their design and arrangement is of great importance for biotope regeneration. Tree-planting areas where the surface is uneven results in plants that sprout and the nesting of small insects. A mat or net made from natural fibres will gradually biodegrade as it is exposed to the weather. So there is no binomial opposition between the natural and the artificial in a biotope. Rather, such artificial materials are widely used.
Germany
It is especially characteristic in Germany, which is the birthplace of the term biotope, that the authorities take the initiative in conserving biotopes, maintaining consistency with urban or rural planning and considering the regions' history and landscape.
[ Atsushi.I.(2005)]
Legal basis
Since 1976, the federal nature protection law, ''
Bundesnaturschutzgesetz'' (BNUM), requires that wild animals and plants and their community should be protected as part of the ecosystem in the specific diversity that has grown naturally and historically, and their biotope and other living conditions should be protected, preserved, developed, and restored. (Number 9, Clause 1, Article 2). The law also requires that some kinds of biotope that are full of a specific variety should not be harmed by development. So there is a law that mandates the protection of biotopes. There is also a provincial law corresponding to the federal one. Such developments were uncommon in those times.
Landscape plan
Many German states are obliged by law to produce a landscape plan (''
Landschaftsplan'') as part of their urban planning, though these plans vary somewhat from place to place. The purpose of the ''Landschaftsplan'' is to protect the region's environment and landscape. These plans use text and figures to describe the present environmental state and proposed remedies. They consider, for example, the regional lie of the land, climate, wind direction, soil, ground water, type of biotope, distribution of animals and plants, inhabitants' welfare and competition with development projects.
Citizen welfare
Biotope preservation in cities also emphasises recreation and relaxation for citizens and improving the urban environment. For example, in the reserve of
Karlsruhe
Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...
in
Baden-Württemberg
Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...
people can cycle on the bike path or walk the dog, although it is forbidden to gather plants and animals there or walk in the exclusion zone. At the core of biotope preservation is the idea that if civic life is surrounded by a rich profusion of nature whose background is in local history and culture, it is improved by protecting nature and preserving the landscape.
Aquaria
The term "biotope" is also used by
aquarium
An aquarium (plural: ''aquariums'' or ''aquaria'') is a vivarium of any size having at least one transparent side in which aquatic plants or animals are kept and displayed. Fishkeepers use aquaria to keep fish, invertebrates, amphibians, aq ...
hobbyists to describe an
aquarium setup that tries to simulate the natural
habitat
In ecology, the term habitat summarises the array of resources, physical and biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species habitat can be seen as the physical ...
of a specific assemblage of fish. The idea is to replicate conditions such as water parameters, natural plants, substrate, water type (
fresh
Fresh or FRESH may refer to:
People
*DJ Fresh (born 1977), UK-based drum and bass artist
*DJ Fresh (producer), US-based R&B producer born Marqus Brown
Arts, entertainment, and media Films
* ''Fresh'' (1994 film), a crime film
* ''Fresh'' (200 ...
,
saline or
brackish
Brackish water, sometimes termed brack water, is water occurring in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. It may result from mixing seawater (salt water) and fresh water together, as in estuari ...
), lighting, and to include other native fish which usually live together in nature and as such, represent a particular real-world biotope. An example of one
South American
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...
biotope type might be "Forest creek tributary of Rio Negro near Barcelos, Brazil" with many branches, twigs, roots, dead leaves, light sandy substrate, tannin-stained water and subdued lighting with floating plants, along with ''
Nannostomus eques'', ''
Paracheirodon axelrodi
The cardinal tetra (''Paracheirodon axelrodi'') is a freshwater fish of the family Characidae of order Characiformes. It is native to the upper Orinoco and Negro Rivers in South America. Growing to about total length, the cardinal tetra has the ...
'', ''
Hemigrammus bleheri
''Hemigrammus bleheri'' is a species of characin found in Amazon Basin in Brazil and Peru. One of three species called rummy-nose tetra, but is also called firehead tetra according to FishBase. Reaching a standard length of 2" (5 cm) it is ...
'', and ''
Dicrossus filamentosus
''Dicrossus filamentosus'' is a species of dwarf cichlid fish. It occurs in the Rio Negro and Orinoco basins of Colombia, Venezuela, and Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the ...
''. "South American" is not itself a biotope, as South America contains thousands of distinct biotopes in different regions.
File:LeonSinksBlackWtrMay05.jpg, A blackwater stream
File:Biotope aquarium - Pterophyllum sp. Manacapuru.jpg, A blackwater aquarium
See also
*
Dieter Duhm
Dieter Duhm (born 19 September 1942, in Berlin), sociologist, psychoanalyst, art historian and author, is one of the co-founders of Tamera, a peace research center in southwestern Portugal.
Influences
During this period, Duhm says that he found ...
*
Ecological land classification Ecological classification or ecological typology is the classification of land or water into geographical units that represent variation in one or more ecological features. Traditional approaches focus on geology, topography, biogeography, soils, ve ...
*
Ecotope
Ecotopes are the smallest ecologically distinct landscape features in a landscape mapping and classification system. As such, they represent relatively homogeneous, spatially explicit landscape functional units that are useful for stratifying land ...
*
Geotope
A geotope is the geological component of the abiotic matrix present in an ecotope. Example geotopes might be an exposed outcrop of rocks, an erratic boulder, a grotto or ravine, a cave, an old stone wall marking a property boundary, and so forth. ...
*
Microclimate
A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few squ ...
References
External links
CORINE BiotopesAbstract on-line at EEA of ''CORINE Biotypes – The design, compilation and use of an inventory of sites of major importance for nature conservation in the European Community''
CORINE Biotopes Manual – Habitats of the European CommunityGerman Biotopes (www.biolflor.de)
Swiss Plant Biotopes The Marine Life Information Network for Britain & Ireland
Biotope Aquariumsat Badman's Tropical Fish
{{Authority control
Ecology terminology
Ecosystems
Environmental soil science
Habitat
Fishkeeping