“Ecotone” is an important topic in Environment general awareness section. In recent times the scope of the environment section has increased in competitive exams and aspirants need to read the environment section thoroughly. This article discusses “Ecotone and its importance” and related terms concerning the given topic. This will help students revise the section and they will be able to solve a good number of questions from this topic.
Ecotone :
- An ecotone is a connecting zone or transitional area between two biomes (diverse ecosystems).
- Ecotone is the zone where two communities meet and merge.
- For example, mangrove forests represent an ecotone between marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
- Other examples are grasslands (between forests and deserts), estuaries (between fresh water and saltwater), riverbanks, or swamps (between dry and wet water).
Features of Ecotone :
- Narrow (between grassland and forest) or wide (between forest and desert). It has intermediate conditions to neighboring ecosystems. It’s a tension zone.
- Species numbers and population densities within originating communities usually decrease with distance from a community or ecosystem.
- A well-developed ecosystem contains several organisms that are quite different from neighboring communities.
Importance of Ecotone :
Ecotone plays so many important roles in the ecosystem. Some of them are listed below.
- Ecosystems exhibit greater variability among organisms.
- They provide convenient habitats for a variety of organisms, by providing nesting space to roaming animals in search of food and nesting sites.
- They serve as a bridge or vehicle for gene flow from one population to another for greater genetic diversity.
- They are known as buffer zones because they protect ecosystem boundaries from many types of damage.
- Ecotone is also sensitive to global climate change. Climate change occurs because the boundaries between ecosystems are changing.
Ecocline :
- An ecocline is a zone of gradual but continuous change from one ecosystem to another when there is no clear boundary between the two ecosystems in terms of species composition.
- Ecoclines occur across environmental gradients (gradual changes in abiotic factors such as altitude, temperature (thermocline), salinity (halocline), and depth).
Edge effect :
- Edge effects refer to changes in population or community structure that occur at the boundaries of two habitats (ecotones).
- The number of species within an ecosystem and the population density of some species can be much higher than in both communities. This is called the edge effect.
- Organisms that are predominantly or most commonly found in this zone are called marginal species. In terrestrial ecosystems, the edge effect is especially true for birds.
- For example, the ecotone between forest and desert has a higher density of birds.
Ecological niche :
- A niche refers to the unique functional role and position of a species in a habitat or ecosystem.
- The functional characteristics of a species in its habitat are called the ‘niche’ of its shared habitat.
- In nature, many species occupy the same habitat but perform different functions.
- Habitat niche – habitat, food niche – what it eats or decomposes, what species it competes with
- Reproductive niches – when and how they reproduce
- Physical and chemical niche – temperature, topography, land slope, humidity, and other requirements.
- Niches play an important role in the conservation of organisms. If you need to protect a species in its natural habitat, you need to know the species’ niche claim.
Types of Niche :
1. Spatial or Habitat Niche:
Describes the physical space occupied by an organism. This describes the variety of microhabitats possessed by multiple species with identical general habitats. For example, his seven species of millipedes live in the same common forest floor habitat in maple-oak forests, and all are decomposers. That is, they occupy the same trophic levels but predominate in specific microhabitats created by multiple gradients of decomposition stages.
2. Nutrient niche:
Indicates the functional role or nutritional position occupied by a species. It explains that different species share the same habitat but occupy different trophic niches. For example, Darwin’s finch in the Galapagos Islands. These birds belong to the same genus and live in the same general habitat, but differ in their feeding habits or nutritional position. Some species are vegetarian and eat buds and fruits. Other species are insectivorous, eating insects of various sizes. There is a woodpecker finch with a woodpecker beak.
3. Hypervolume or multidimensional niche:
Represents the position of species in environmental gradients. Numerous abiotic and biotic environmental factors affect populations. This is the fundamental niche of a species and refers to the set of abiotic and biotic factors to which a particular species uniquely adapts.