Page 29 [29]
II. BIOCOENOSIS AND ZOOCOENOSIS
§ THE CONCEPT OF BIOCOENOSIS
The word biocoenosis has a very wide range of interpretations by different
authors. The main reason for this is that the term has two meanings: it is
used to express a relationship (living in a biocoenosis) and, also, to denote
an assemblage (community) that this relationship brings together. In other
words, the expression biocoenosis is used to denote the process of coexistence,
as well as to name the resulting entity. In all likelihood, this double meaning
is the reason that authors, in some cases, use the term for organisms living
in very small spatial units, while others use the same term only for very large
assemblages (Szelényi, 1955). To clarify our viewpoint, and clearly identify
our interpretation of the term, we state the following.
Henceforth, we will not use “community” as a synonym for biocoenosis,
because we are not referring to the assemblage, but to the relationships that
make an assemblage an ecological community. For example, insects and
bacteria living on a carcass comprise a community but they do not constitute
a biocoenosis. Therefore, the term community indicates that a relationship
exists: community infers a network of interactions that bring groups of
organisms into coexistence. The biocoenosis is not visible nor tangible, its
existence can only be deduced from certain causal relationships and is
represented by all the living things that are held together by these
interrelationships. The community is a visible and tangible entity, even if the
constituent relationships can only partially registered.
The term biocoenosis is interpreted as an association of living beings,
never limited to either plants or animals; on the contrary, a biocoenosis
always incorporates all organisms in each space, if these organisms form
an interacting community. Only then, can these species be considered a
community. This means that the constituent organisms must be members
of groups of living organisms that mutually presume each other’s presence,
that are mutually interdependent and, consequently, they influence each
other.
Therefore, a biocoenosis, in our perception, is a total community, where
any, and all, species are included, from bacteria through hetero- and
autotrophic plants to animals, where they are in a state of association, i.e.
they form an ecological community. Henceforth, I will avoid expressions like