Merotop
In ecology, a merotope , also called a small biotope or minimal biotope , describes a small section of a biotope with a special community due to its special structure. Sometimes it is simply a synonym for microhabitat . The term is rarely used.
The term Merotop goes back to the ecologist Wolfgang Tischler , who first used this word in 1949. It is made up of the nouns τὸ µέρος (tò méros, n .: “among other things”) and ὁ τόπος (ho tópos, m .: “place, place, place”). By eliminating the word ending ς (s) and the word ending ος (os), the technical term Merotop, which means “part of a place”, is created. In ecology, the merotope is the sub-unit of a habitat , a biochorion or a stratum (“stratotope” according to Tischler) with a special settlement with living beings, especially through structural properties, which is linked in its occurrence to other corresponding structures. An example would be a tree with the merotopes of foliage, bark, roots, wood, fruits, etc. A merotope can thus be understood as a place for the special community of an individual organism “module”
The community of a merotope can be called a meroenosis.
literature
- Matthias Schaefer: Dictionaries of Biology: Ecology . Jena / Stuttgart, Gustav Fischer Verlag, 3rd edition 1992 (UTB Taschenbuch 430). ISBN 3 8252 0430 8 . Merotop. P. 195.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Stefan Nehring & Ute Albrecht (2000): Biotop, Habitat, Microhabitat - A contribution to the discussion on the definition of terms. Lauterbornia 38: 75-84.
- ^ W. Carpenter: Basic features of terrestrial animal ecology. Braunschweig (Vieweg) 1949.
- ^ Henning Haeupler (2002): The biotopes of Germany. Publication series for vegetation science 38: 247–272.