Characteristics of a Community

Characteristics of a Community

A community has the following characteristics:
(a) Structure:
Structure of a community can be studied by determining the density, frequency and abundance of species.

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(b) Dominance:
Usually a community has one or more species which occur in large number. Such species are called dominants and the community is often named after them.
(c) Diversity:
The community consists of different groups of plants and animals of different species, may be large and small, may belong to one life form or another but are essentially growing in a uniform environment.

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(d) Periodicity:
This includes study of various life processes (respiration, growth, reproduction etc.) in the various seasons of the year in the dominant species of a community. The recurrence of these important life processes at regular intervals in a year and their manifestation in nature is termed periodicity.
(e) Stratification:
Natural forest communities possess a number of layers or stores or strata related to the height of plants, for example, tall trees, smaller trees, shrubs and herbaceous layers form the different strata. This phenomenon in a plant community is called stratification.
(f) Eco-tone and Edge-effect:
A zone of vegetation spreading or separating two different types of communities is called eco-tone. These are marginal zones and are easily recognizable.
Usually, in eco-tones, the variety of one species is larger than in any of the adjacent communities. A phenomenon of increased variety and intensity of plants at the common junction is called edge-effect and is essentially due t6 wider range of suitable environmental conditions.
(g) Ecological Niche:
Different species of animals and plants fulfill different functions in the ecological complex. The role of each is spoken of as its ecological niche i.e. the role that a specie plays in its ecosystem: what it eats, who eats it, its range of movement etc., in other words, the total range of its interaction with other species of its environment.
We can also say that ecological niche is a small habitat within a habitat, in which only a single species can survive. E.P. Odum has differentiated habitat and ecological niche by saying that the habitat is an organism’s address and the ecological niche is its profession.
(h) Interspecific Association:
This is the study of two or more species grow­ing together in close association in regular occurrence.
(i) Community Productivity:
The study of production of biomass (organic matter) is known as production ecology. The net production of biomass and storage of energy by a community per unit time and area is called community productivity.
(j) Biotic Stability:
A biotic community has the ability to quickly regain equi­librium after a disturbance in population fluctuation. This is called biotic stability and is directly proportional to the number of interacting species it contains i.e. the diversity in the community.