Physiotope is the total
abiotic
In biology and ecology, abiotic components or abiotic factors are non-living chemical and physical parts of the environment that affect living organisms and the functioning of ecosystems. Abiotic factors and the phenomena associated with them under ...
matrix of
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 ...
present within any certain
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 la ...
. The physiotope is the landform, the rocks and the soils, the climate and the hydrology, and the geologic processes which marshalled all these resources together in a certain way and in this time and place.
See also
*
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 ...
References
* Kratochwil, Anselm. ''Biodiversity in Ecosystems: Principles and Case Studies of Different Complexity Levels.'' Series: Tasks for Vegetation Science, XXXIV. Dordrecht, Germany: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999. .
Ecosystems
Ecology terminology
Habitat
{{ecoregion-stub