This article provides an overview of types of plant communities and the process of succession in those communities. In each type of habitat, certain species group together as a community. Fossil records indicate that some of these groups (or very closely related precursors) have lived together for thousands or even millions of years. During that…
Tag: ERAcommunities
Conceptualizing communities as natural entities: a philosophical argument with basic and applied implications, Steen et al. 2017
Ecological restoration aims to recreate lost or degraded ecological communities. However, “community” has been a difficult concept to define – should the definition stress dominant species, species interactions, or a subset of strongly interacting species? These authors propose defining community on the basis of co-evolutionary relationships among species. We propose that an Evolutionary Community is…
Non-native plants reduce abundance, richness, and host specialization in lepidopteran communities, Burghardt et al. 2010
This research evaluates the impact of the invasion of non-native plants in the distribution of lepidopteran (butterfly, skipper, and moth) communities. The authors assert that although the introduction of non-native plants has not resulted in a “global extinction”, they have had a considerable impact on how ecosystems function—they often result in significant bottom-up reductions of…