Habitat

For other uses of "Habitat", see Habitat (disambiguation).

This coral reef in the Phoenix Islands Protected Area is a rich habitat for sea life.

Few creatures make the ice shelves of Antarctica their habitat.

Habitat is an ecological or environmental area that is inhabited by a particular species of animal, plant, or other type of organism. It is the natural environment in which an organism lives, or the physical environment that surrounds (influences and is utilized by) a species population.

Definition

The term "animal" is preferred to "organism" because, while it is possible to describe the habitat of a single turtle, it is also possible that one may not find any particular or individual bear but the grouping of bears that constitute a breeding population and occupy a certain biogeographical area. Further, this habitat could be somewhat different from the habitat of another group or population of black bears living elsewhere. Thus it is neither the species nor the individual for which the term habitat is typically used.

Microhabitat

The term microhabitat is often used to describe small-scale physical requirements of a particular organism or population.

Monotypic habitat

The monotypic habitat occurs in botanical and zoological contexts, and is a component of conservation biology. In restoration ecology of native plant communities or habitats, some invasive species create monotypic stands that replace and/or prevent other species, especially indigenous ones, from growing there. A dominant colonization can occur from retardant chemicals exuded, nutrient monopolization, or from lack of natural controls such as herbivores or climate, that keep them in balance with their native habitats. The yellow starthistle, Centaurea solstitialis, is a botanical monotypic-habitat example of this, currently dominating over 15,000,000 acres (61,000 km²) in California alone. The non-native freshwater zebra mussel, Dreissena polymorpha, that colonizes areas of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River watershed, without its home-range predator control, is a zoological monotypic-habitat example.

Even though its name may seem to imply simplicity as compared with polytypic habitats, the monotypic habitat can be complex.

See also

• Habitat conservation
• Habitat corridor
• Habitat fragmentation
• Marine habitats