Pattern: spatial, temporal, niche patterns, species along gradients, community in landscape
Process: succession → site index, competition, biotic reaction、disturbance

Uniquity of change in time - patchy dynamics
Vegetation in space: vegetation is never separated from the ground surface

(Ecological) niche (ニッチ)

Niche breadth and overlap

the breadth is the "distance through" a niche along some particular line in niche space)

Resource or environmental gradient

50 species in New Guinea
Group 1. Occupied in species-rich islands
Group 2. Species-rich islands + species-poor islands (trampers)
Group 3. Species-poor island (super trampers)

Term: proposed by (Humboldt 1805)
1) Organic concept: Profile, stratification, etc. - closed system
2) Individualistic concept: Habitat segregation(棲み分け, 同位社会) - open system

Plant community (association) is a very global term

1. an example of vegetation within a habitat
2. a unit in a classification of vegetation

The organisms which affect, directly or indirectly, the expected reprocutive success of a reference organism. By a "true" community is meant one whose member individuals interact, either directly or through a chain of other individuals, in a way that effects their individual life times and chances of reproduction and survival. (MacMahon et al. 1981)

A group of populations (個体群) of all organisms that coexist in a space and time. The species may interact to each other.

Plant community

A plant subset of community; viz. all plants coexist in a space and time.

Vegetation (and phytocoenosis)

I use as the synonym of 'plant community' in my lecture.

Reference: Phytosociological term
Association: a particular plant community type that can be determined by the characteristics of species composition, physiognomy and environments

Coevolution and competition

Coevolution called to tight associations or not ⇔ Competition called to swamp associations or more overlaps

Problems

Are plant communities real or artifact?

Real: sample, stand, plot, quadrat, etc. ⇔ Artifact: associations, community types - phytosociology

1. How do we recognize plant communities?
   Clementsian paradim, Gleasonian apporach, and the synthesis
   Ecotone
2. How do we draw the boundary of two communities?

1. Flora
   Species composition
2. Plant community physiognomy
   Abundance → (percentage) cover, basal area, density, frequency
3. Distribution correlated with environment

Physiognomy (相観)

is 'the form and structure of vegetation in natural communities'.

Examples: Forest, shrubland (bushland), grassland, desert
→ forest zones of the Cascades

Physiognomy is one of the keys to determine the types of communities, ecosystems and biomes.

A few examples of physiognomy

1 2
[1] A forest canopy on Tomakomai Experimental Forest (October 1995). The physiognomy is categorized into "Forest"! [2] A bushland in Western Australia (October 3 2003). In this case, there are no trees.

Mosaic Distribution (モザイク分布)

Crown(overstory) - slow/gradual → Understory - fast/quick
→ Braun-Blanquet: characteristic species + absolute/relative cover → phytosociological taxonomy key

Ecotone (エコトーン)

The development of ecotone is tightly connected with the environmental gradient.

1. general concept → urban environment, desert environment, etc. (Billings 1974)
2. specific (biological) concept → interaction(s) between environment-organism (individual, population, or community) → biologial meaning

Ecology (生態学)

1. The complex of climatic, edaphic and biotic factors that act upon an organism or an ecological community and ultimately determine its form and survival.
2. the physical conditions which exist within the area which will be affected by a proposed project, including land, air, water, mineral, flora, fauna, noise, and objects of historic or aesthetic significance.

Environmental science

1. everything except me (most general)
2. everything except human
   Declaration of the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment (Stockholm Declaration on 5-16 June 1976) follows this.
   The protection and improvement of the human environment is a major issue which affects the well-being of peoples and economic development throughout the world.
3. everything except earth

Action, reaction and coaction

System

Ecosystem

+ Plant community
+ Animal community
+ Environment
or,
+ Biotic components
+ Abiotic components

Ecological system

Characteristics
1) resilience (弾力性)
2) adaptation (適応性)
3) dynamics (動的)

(Theodore 1976)

Characteristics of ecosystems

1. A living system exits only within the context of its physical and chemical environment. This environment establishes the "ground ruler (基本的役目)" for a system’s continuing existence.
2. An especially important part of item (a) is the requirement of that a living system captures all resources (materials and energy) needed for its continuing existence. These requirements, especially energy, impose further restrictions upon the mature of ecological systems.
3. A system will develop a characteristic structure in response to these and other influences.
4. In nearly every case the structure of a system will not be static, but rather will be dynamic and responsive to changing conditions. To promote continuing survival, these must be appropriate mechanisms that allow ecological system to cope with change. Otherwise, potential competitions would replace them.

If you think protecting species is hard, just wait until we try to protect whole ecosystems. (Noss 1996)

1. Geoecosystems: segments of the Earth’s living space, functional units of nature on the face of the Earth. Any single perceptible ecosystem is a topographic unit, a volume of land and air plus organic contents extended a really over a particular part of the Earth’s surface for a certain time (Rowe 1961)
2. Bioecosystems: Community (organisms) + environment. The danger in simple definition is: a) inconstant nature of vegetation, and b) the wandering habits of all animals.

Quiz

1. List several distinctly different non-seral shrub-dominated community types and several herb-dominated community types. For each, state the environmental factor or factors that permit these growth forms to dominate and to persist.
2. Distinguish between subalpine and alpine meadows. For each, describe three major associations.

Metacommunity (メタ群集)

Unchangeable model

Ex. population unit: age structure (structure survyed at a given time = disequilibriumo of age structure

Changeable model

an ecological system that includes all the organisms and their environment within which they occur

Steady-state open system (定常開放系)

    ┌──────────────┐
    │  Capitalism                │   ↑
    │┌────────────┐│   ↑
    ││Advanced nations        ││ Exploitation
    ││(eg, Europe, Japan, USA)││   ↑
    ││     [Capitalist]       ││   ↑
    ││     [Laborer]          ││   ↑
    │└────────────┘│   ↑
    │┌────────────┐│   ↑
    ││The third world         ││   ↑
    │└────────────┘│   ↑
    └──────────────┘

Landscapee model (景観モデル)

Landscapee simulation model (森林景観シュミレーションモデル)