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In ecology, habitat refers to the array of resources, biotic factors that are present in an area, such as to support the survival and reproduction of a particular species. A species' habitat can be seen as the physical manifestation of its ecological niche. Thus "habitat" is a species-specific term, fundamentally different from concepts such as environment or vegetation assemblages, for which the term "habitat-type" is more appropriate.
The physical factors may include (for example): soil, moisture, range of temperature, and light intensity. Biotic index factors include the availability of food and the presence or absence of Predation. Every species has particular habitat requirements, habitat generalist species are able to thrive in a wide array of environmental conditions while habitat specialist species require a very limited set of factors to survive. The habitat of a species is not necessarily found in a geographical area, it can be the interior of a stem, a rotten log, a rock or a clump of moss; a Parasitism has as its habitat the body of its host, part of the host's body (such as the digestive tract), or a single cell within the host's body.For example:
Habitat types are environmental categorizations of different environments based on the characteristics of a given geographical area, particularly vegetation and climate. Thus habitat types do not refer to a single species but to multiple species living in the same area. For example, terrestrial habitat types include forest, steppe, grassland, semi-arid or desert. Fresh-water habitat types include , , , , and ; marine habitat types include salt marshes, the coast, the intertidal zone, Estuary, , bays, the open sea, the sea bed, deep water and submarine vents.
Habitat types may change over time. Causes of change may include a violent event (such as the eruption of a volcano, an earthquake, a tsunami, a wildfire or a change in oceanic currents); or change may occur more gradually over millennia with alterations in the climate, as and advance and retreat, and as different weather patterns bring changes of precipitation and Solar irradiance. Other changes come as a direct result of human activities, such as deforestation, the plowing of ancient grasslands, the diversion and damming of rivers, the draining of marshland and the dredging of the seabed. The introduction of alien species can have a devastating effect on native wildlife – through increased predation, through competition for resources or through the introduction of pests and diseases to which the indigenous species have no immunity.
Some plants and animals have habitat requirements which are met in a wide range of locations. The small white butterfly Pieris rapae for example is found on all the continents of the world apart from Antarctica. Its feed on a wide range of and various other plant species, and it thrives in any open location with diverse plant associations. The large blue butterfly Phengaris arion is much more specific in its requirements; it is found only in chalk grassland areas, its larvae feed on Thymus species, and because of complex life cycle requirements it inhabits only areas in which Myrmica ants live.
Disturbance is important in the creation of biodiversity habitat types. In the absence of disturbance, a Climax community cover develops that prevents the establishment of other species. Wildflower meadows are sometimes created by conservationists but most of the flowering plants used are either Annual plant or Biennial plant and disappear after a few years in the absence of patches of bare ground on which their seedlings can grow. Lightning strikes and toppled trees in tropical forests allow species richness to be maintained as Pioneer species move in to fill the gaps created. Similarly, coastal habitat types can become dominated by kelp until the seabed is disturbed by a storm and the algae swept away, or shifting sediment exposes new areas for colonisation. Another cause of disturbance is when an area may be overwhelmed by an Invasive species which is not kept under control by natural enemies in its new habitat.
There are numerous different microhabitat types in a wood; coniferous forest, broad-leafed forest, open woodland, scattered trees, woodland verges, clearings, and glades; tree trunk, branch, twig, bud, leaf, flower, and fruit; rough bark, smooth bark, damaged bark, rotten wood, hollow, groove, and hole; canopy, shrub layer, plant layer, leaf litter, and soil; buttress root, stump, fallen log, stem base, grass tussock, fungus, fern, and moss. The greater the structural diversity in the wood, the greater the number of microhabitat types that will be present. A range of tree species with individual specimens of varying sizes and ages, and a range of features such as streams, level areas, slopes, tracks, clearings, and felled areas will provide suitable conditions for an enormous number of biodiverse plants and animals. For example, in Britain it has been estimated that various types of rotting wood are home to over 1700 species of invertebrate.
For a parasitic organism, its habitat is the particular part of the outside or inside of its host on or in which it is adapted to live. The life cycle of some parasites involves several different host species, as well as free-living life stages, sometimes within vastly different microhabitat types. One such organism is the trematode (flatworm) Microphallus turgidus, present in brackish water marshes in the southeastern United States. Its first intermediate host is a Gastropoda and the second, a glass shrimp. The final host is the waterfowl or mammal that consumes the shrimp.
Other microbes live in environments lacking in oxygen, and are dependent on chemical reactions other than photosynthesis. Boreholes drilled into the rocky seabed have found microbial communities apparently based on the products of reactions between water and the constituents of rocks. These communities have not been studied much, but may be an important part of the global carbon cycle. Rock in mines two miles deep also harbour microbes; these live on minute traces of hydrogen produced in slow oxidizing reactions inside the rock. These metabolic reactions allow life to exist in places with no oxygen or light, an environment that had previously been thought to be devoid of life.
The intertidal zone and the photic zone in the oceans are relatively familiar habitat types. However the vast bulk of the ocean is inhospitable to air-breathing humans, with Scuba diving limited to the upper or so. The lower limit for photosynthesis is and below that depth the prevailing conditions include total darkness, high pressure, little oxygen (in some places), scarce food resources and extreme cold. This habitat is very challenging to research, and as well as being little-studied, it is vast, with 79% of the Earth's biosphere being at depths greater than . With no plant life, the animals in this zone are either , reliant on food drifting down from surface layers, or they are predators, feeding on each other. Some organisms are Pelagic zone, swimming or drifting in mid-ocean, while others are benthic, living on or near the seabed. Their growth rates and metabolisms tend to be slow, their eyes may be very large to detect what little illumination there is, or they may be blind and rely on other sensory inputs. A number of deep sea creatures are Bioluminescence; this serves a variety of functions including predation, protection and social recognition. In general, the bodies of animals living at great depths are adapted to high pressure environments by having pressure-resistant and small organic molecules present in their cells known as , which give the proteins the flexibility they need. There are also unsaturated fats in their membranes which prevent them from solidifying at low temperatures.
Hydrothermal vents were first discovered in the ocean depths in 1977. They result from seawater becoming heated after seeping through cracks to places where hot magma is close to the seabed. The under-water hot springs may gush forth at temperatures of over and support unique communities of organisms in their immediate vicinity. The basis for this teeming life is chemosynthesis, a process by which microbes convert such substances as hydrogen sulfide or ammonia into organic molecules. These bacteria and Archaea are the primary producers in these ecosystems and support a diverse array of life. About 350 species of organism, dominated by Mollusca, Polychaete and , had been discovered around hydrothermal vents by the end of the twentieth century, most of them being new to science and Endemism to these habitat types.
Besides providing locomotion opportunities for winged animals and a conduit for the dispersal of pollen grains, and , the atmosphere can be considered to be a habitat-type in its own right. There are metabolically active microbes present that actively reproduce and spend their whole existence airborne, with hundreds of thousands of individual organisms estimated to be present in a cubic meter of air. The airborne microbial community may be as diverse as that found in soil or other terrestrial environments, however, these organisms are not evenly distributed, their densities varying spatially with altitude and environmental conditions. Aerobiology has not been studied much, but there is evidence of Nitrogen cycle in , and less clear evidence of carbon cycling, both facilitated by microbial activity.
There are other examples of extreme habitat types where specially adapted lifeforms exist; teeming with microbial life; naturally occurring crude oil pools inhabited by the larvae of the petroleum fly; where the temperature may be as high as and cyanobacteria create ; where the methane and hydrogen sulfide issue from the ocean floor and support microbes and higher animals such as which form Symbiosis with these anaerobic organisms; salt pans that harbour halotolerance bacteria, archaea and also fungi such as the black yeast Hortaea werneckii and Basidiomycota Wallemia ichthyophaga; ice sheets in Antarctica which support fungi Thelebolus spp., glacial ice with a variety of bacteria and fungi; and snowfields on which algae grow.
Loss of habitat is the single greatest threat to any species. If an island on which an endemic organism lives becomes uninhabitable for some reason, the species will become Extinction. Any type of habitat surrounded by a different habitat is in a similar situation to an island. If a forest is divided into parts by logging, with strips of cleared land separating woodland blocks, and the distances between the remaining fragments exceeds the distance an individual animal is able to travel, that species becomes especially vulnerable. Small populations generally lack genetic diversity and may be threatened by increased predation, increased competition, disease and unexpected catastrophe. At the edge of each forest fragment, increased light encourages secondary growth of fast-growing species and old growth trees are more vulnerable to logging as access is improved. The birds that nest in their crevices, the that hang from their branches and the invertebrates in the leaf litter are all adversely affected and biodiversity is reduced. Habitat fragmentation can be ameliorated to some extent by the provision of wildlife corridors connecting the fragments. These can be a river, ditch, strip of trees, hedgerow or even an underpass to a highway. Without the corridors, seeds cannot disperse and animals, especially small ones, cannot travel through the hostile territory, putting populations at greater risk of local extinction.
Habitat disturbance can have long-lasting effects on the environment. Bromus tectorum is a vigorous grass from Europe which has been introduced to the United States where it has become invasive. It is highly adapted to fire, producing large amounts of flammable detritus and increasing the frequency and intensity of wildfires. In areas where it has become established, it has altered the local fire regimen to such an extant that native plants cannot survive the frequent fires, allowing it to become even more dominant. A marine example is when sea urchin populations "explode" in coastal waters and destroy all the Seaweed present. What was previously a kelp forest becomes an urchin barren that may last for years and this can have a profound effect on the food chain. Removal of the sea urchins, by disease for example, can result in the seaweed returning, with an over-abundance of fast-growing kelp.
International treaties may be necessary for such objectives as the setting up of marine reserves. Another international agreement, the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, protects animals that migrate across the globe and need protection in more than one country. Even where legislation protects the environment, a lack of enforcement often prevents effective protection. However, the protection of habitat types needs to take into account the needs of the local residents for food, fuel and other resources. Faced with hunger and destitution, a farmer is likely to plough up a level patch of ground despite it being the last suitable habitat for an endangered species such as the San Quintin kangaroo rat, and even kill the animal as a pest. In the interests of ecotourism it is desirable that local communities are educated on the uniqueness of their flora and fauna.
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