What is Ecological Community and its characteristics? | UPSC Environment

An ecological community is the study of the interactions between species in communities on many spatial and temporal scales that includes the distribution, structure, abundance, demography, and interactions between co-existing populations. Today we will be discussing in detail about ecological community and its characteristics. 

An ecological community is a group of a population of two or more species occupying the same geographical area at the same time. The community has a variety of uses, and there are three types of characteristics included in the ecological community that are periodicity, turnover, and interdependence. 

Periodicity: Periodicity is the study of various life processes that includes respiration, growth, and reproduction of various species in various seasons of the year. The recurrence of these important life processes at regular intervals in a year and their manifestation in nature is termed periodicity. In simple terms, periodicity refers to the activity of an organism for food, shelter, and reproduction. 

Turnover: They are related to seasonal changes, day and night, and lunar rhythms. The turnover is quantified using a variety of metrics initially developed to capture spatial change. The turnover is the consequence of unidirectional community dynamics resulting from processes such as population growth, colonization, and local extinction. 

It also refers to the increased rates of taxon gains or losses that cause the fauna or flora to show us the difference between the ones before in the ecological community. 

Interdependence: Interdependence is a simple term, it is the idea that the population of species in the ecosystem depend on each other. 

If the population of one species rises or falls, the populations of other species in the same ecosystem will also change. For example, if the dears numbers become less then the tiger’s numbers will also come down. That is how the species in the ecosystem are dependent on each other. 

So this is all about the ecological community and its characteristics. All the characteristics like periodicity, turnover, and interdependence are quite significant that will help us understand the community and nature’s amazing works.

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