Physiotope

The position of the physiotope / location within the ecotope / ecosystem.

The physiotope is the basic abiotic spatial unit of landscape ecology . A physiotope forms a uniform ecological location and therefore has a uniform appearance. However, due to human influences (or the effects of other external factors), a physiotope can actually accommodate several different vegetation stands. The term is occasionally used, instead of the more common term ecotope , to denote the delimitation of an ecosystem (as a spatial unit).

The term physiotope was first introduced in 1948 by the geographer Josef Schmithüsen . The definition of Ernst Neef is often used : According to him, the physiotope is “ the mapping of the landscape-ecological basic unit with the help of the relatively stable abiotic elements and components that have shown the same development due to the previous development and are connected in natural law. It therefore shows certain forms of material balance that determine its ecological significance (ecological potential). As a homogeneous basic unit, it can be represented as a type as well as an area unit "

The landscape ecologist Hartmut Leser prefers the term geotope for the same . In recent times, however, the term geotope has mostly been avoided because the synonymous term geotope has become more widespread in the geosciences, with a different meaning.

Numerous other terms have been proposed nationally and internationally as an expression for the smallest ecological landscape area, some of which are used synonymously, some with slightly different meanings and are preferred by certain authors or schools. This confusion of terms has been lamented by many authors, but has not yet been resolved satisfactorily. The expressions “tile”, “ecotope” or “ecotope”, “geo-ecotope” and numerous others that are no longer in use today have been introduced with the same meaning. In the English-speaking world, the term “ patch ” is currently often used for this .

The geographer Carl Troll rejected the term physiotope because, in his opinion, he did not take into account the serious repercussions of the vegetation on the location, which in extreme cases ( high moor ) can be more important than the abiotic location itself. Some authors, such as the Austrian geographer Franz Dollinger even reject all of these terms, which they regard as theoretical constructs that are not applicable in real mapping practice.

literature

Reader H: Landscape Ecology . Stuttgart, 1997: 148-149 ISBN 3-8252-0521-5
Kratochwil A, Schwabe A: Ecology of communities . Stuttgart, 2001: 94 ISBN 978-3-8252-8199-1

Web links

Individual evidence

↑ Angelika Schwabe: Spatial Arrangements of Habitats and Biodiversity: An Approach to a Sigmasociological View. In: Anselm Kratochwil: Biodiversity in Ecosystems: Principles and Case Studies of Different Complexity Levels. Springer, 2001. ISBN 978-1-4020-0280-9 . on pages 79 and 80.
^ Ernst Neef (1968): The physiotope as the central concept of complex physical geography. Petermann's Geographical Communications 112: 15-23.
↑ Eckhard Jedicke (2001): Biodiversity, Geodiversity, Ecodiversity. Criteria for the analysis of the landscape structure. Conservation and landscape planning 33 (2/3): 59-68.
↑ cf. R. Schneider-Sliwa, D. Schaub, G. Gerold: Applied landscape ecology: Basics and methods. Springer-Verlag, 2013. ISBN 978-3-642-58488-6 . on page 54
↑ Carl Troll: Landscape Ecology. In: Reinhold Tüxen (editor): Plant sociology and landscape ecology. Reports of the International Symposium of the International Association for Vegetation Science Stolzenau (Weser) 1963. Junk Publishers, The Hague 1968. on page 15
^ Franz Dollinger (1997): On the application of the theory of geographical dimensions in spatial planning by means of geographical information technology. Applied Geographical Information Processing IX = Salzburg Geographical Materials, Issue 26. Self-published by the Institute for Geography at the University of Salzburg.

[1] Angelika Schwabe: Spatial Arrangements of Habitats and Biodiversity: An Approach to a Sigmasociological View. In: Anselm Kratochwil: Biodiversity in Ecosystems: Principles and Case Studies of Different Complexity Levels. Springer, 2001. ISBN 978-1-4020-0280-9 . on pages 79 and 80.

[2] Ernst Neef (1968): The physiotope as the central concept of complex physical geography. Petermann's Geographical Communications 112: 15-23.

[3] Eckhard Jedicke (2001): Biodiversity, Geodiversity, Ecodiversity. Criteria for the analysis of the landscape structure. Conservation and landscape planning 33 (2/3): 59-68.

[4] . R. Schneider-Sliwa, D. Schaub, G. Gerold: Applied landscape ecology: Basics and methods. Springer-Verlag, 2013. ISBN 978-3-642-58488-6 . on page 54

[5] Carl Troll: Landscape Ecology. In: Reinhold Tüxen (editor): Plant sociology and landscape ecology. Reports of the International Symposium of the International Association for Vegetation Science Stolzenau (Weser) 1963. Junk Publishers, The Hague 1968. on page 15

[6] Franz Dollinger (1997): On the application of the theory of geographical dimensions in spatial planning by means of geographical information technology. Applied Geographical Information Processing IX = Salzburg Geographical Materials, Issue 26. Self-published by the Institute for Geography at the University of Salzburg.