Oldal 59 [59]
§ The question of balance in the biocoenosis | 57
ask whether we are misleading ourselves by believing that the number of
gradations is higher in agrobiocoenoses than in natural ones? Even if it were
so, we cannot conclude that this phenomenon can be explained by a disturbed
balance, when it is obvious that fluctuations in population abundance do
occur in other biocoenoses. Could this mean that the equilibrium can also
be upset in these biocoenoses? If gradations and disequlibrium are equivalent,
this suggests no less than that there is only a difference of degree between an
agrobiocoenosis and a natural biocoenosis; thus, the criterion of equilibrium
cannot be included in the definition of the biocoenosis, as its essence is not
the presence or absence of equilibrium, but something else. This “something
else” cannot be anything other than the interaction, necessarily present in
every association, because this is what creates a coenosis from coexistence.
The interaction extends to abiotic factors as well and, the poorer the
biocoenosis is in energy sources, and more uniform in ecological life
conditions, the more gaps it will contain. For this reason, only populations
with special capacities for adaptationcan survive there. The higher the
influence of the macroclimate, the less the biocoenosis can dampen these
effects, and the more obvious these gaps become. A field of maize has one
plant energy base, the macroclimate is unimpeded; there is no canopy¬
generated shade nor water-storing litter as in the oak forest further away.
How could we expect the same conditions and interactions in these two
biocoenoses? The result cannot be other than Phyllotreta beetles and beet
curculionids will be present on the beet field, and corn borers in the maize
as suitably adapted corrumpents, while several obstants that otherwise would
feed on them, will not be present due to lack of appropriate adaptations. To
explain these differences, why would it be necessary to invoke the fiction of
equilibrium (Friederichs, 1930: “Das Gleichgewicht is [...] bemüglich der
Lebensgemeinschaft als eines Ganzen nur eine Fiktion, ein gedachter Zustand,
von dem die Wirklichkeit immer sehr weit entfernt ist”), when they can be
much more simply and incontrovertibly explained by species interactions?
The interactions are, without doubt, also present in agrobiocoenoses and
explains why crop plant will attract corrumpents, and these their own obstant
elements. The soil fauna is in interaction with what happens at above-ground
levels, and will become impoverished not only due to less organic debris, but
also because it is defenceless against macroclimatic extremes.
At the highest level, macroclimate determines the qualitative and
quantitative composition of every biocoenosis. On the surface, it supports
the fiction of equilibrium but, in reality, destroys it. It is an attractive view
that whatever is in a biome, it is in equilibrium with the macroclimate.
Essentially, the plants and animals living in a given area are adapted to the
conditions provided by the ecosystem, and the macroclimate will be
transformed and modified into an ecoclimate, that will affect the association
in this form. In addition, the weather extremes of the macroclimate can
devastate even living beings that have occupied the space continuously and