What is ecotone short answer?

ecotone, a transitional area of vegetation between two different plant communities, such as forest and grassland. It has some of the characteristics of each bordering biological community and often contains species not found in the overlapping communities.

What are the different types of ecotones?

Ecotone is the zone where two communities meet and integrate. For e.g. the mangrove forests represent an ecotone between marine and terrestrial ecosystem. Other examples are grassland (between forest and desert), estuary (between fresh water and salt water) and riverbank or marshland (between dry and wet).

What is the definition of ecotone in geography?

Ecotones are areas of steep transition between ecological communities, ecosystems, and/or ecological regions along an environmental or other gradient. Ecotones occur at multiple spatial scales and range from natural ecotones between ecosystems and biomes to human-generated boundaries.

What is ecotone in biology class 12?

Ecotone is a zone of junction between two diverse ecosystems or two biomes. The two communities merge and integrate in this transition area.

What are the features of an ecotone?

First, an ecotone can have a sharp vegetation transition, with a distinct line between two communities. For example, a change in colors of grasses or plant life can indicate an ecotone. Second, a change in physiognomy (physical appearance of a plant species) can be a key indicator.

What is ecotone PDF?

An ecotone is the highly dynamic boundary between two disparate ecosystems: vegetation types and biomes. Ecotones can be very narrow and sharply defined, such. as a terrestrial-aquatic boundary, or they can represent a broad transition between. differing biomes, such as a gradual conversion between grassland and forest …

What is an ecotone What are the cause of its formation?

Abstract. Rapid changes in species composition, also known as ecotones, can result from various causes including rapid changes in environmental conditions, or physiological thresholds. The possibility that ecotones arise from ecological niche construction by ecosystem engineers has received little attention.

How do ecotones form?

Most wetlands are ecotones. The spatial variation of ecotones often form due to disturbances, creating patches that separate patches of vegetation. Different intensity of disturbances can cause landslides, land shifts, or movement of sediment that can create these vegetation patches and ecotones.

What are edges and ecotones?

Edge Effect – The greater number of landscape elements, vegetation complexity and mixed ecosystem characteristics result in greater density and biodiversity along the ecotones. This phenomenon is called the edge effect.

What are the characteristics of ecotone?

Characteristics of Ecotones Ecotones can be either narrow or wide. They can be natural and also man-made. Often, ecotones have very distinct species which might also not be found in the other bordering ecosystems. Ecotones also act as zones of tension because the area borders the two different ecosystems.

Who proposed the concept of ecotones?

The word ecotone was coined by Alfred Russel Wallace, who first observed the abrupt boundary between two biomes in 1859.

What are the causes of ecotones formation?

Rapid changes in species composition, also known as ecotones, can result from various causes including rapid changes in environmental conditions, or physiological thresholds. The possibility that ecotones arise from ecological niche construction by ecosystem engineers has received little attention.

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