Oldal 70 [70]
OCR
68 | III. Biotope and animal associations a ground level, no biotope is imaginable, and the other layers gradually build up over this one; the fullest biotope contains all layers. This cannot develop everywhere. The climax biotope is the biotope with the maximal vertical stratification that is possible under the given soil, climatic and cosmic factors. Examples include the deciduous forest on central European hills, the dwarf pine in high mountains, the alpine meadow at higher altitude and, even higher, the vegetation of rock faces. The associational importance of the biorophs is indicated by the fact that many authors consider the levels in biotopes of zoocoecnological importance. These are, however, neither frames for zoocoenoses, nor components of biotopes, but structural elements of the biotope (sensu Nagy, 1944, 1947; Tischler, 1950). It is also true, on the other hand, that every new bioroph, via their associated plants, leading to trophic specialization of animals and other ecological factors, brings further nuance and new frames of association into the biotope (conf. Park, see Allee et al., 1949). The vertical stratification of a biotope is created by one or more plant species forming the vegetation cover, and the animal association is also shaped from this origin. Thus, the smallest units within a biotope, the structural frames within the biotope, must depend on individual plants. There cannot be a smaller unit than this, because a leaf, fruit, or litter, cannot exist without individual plants. If the biotope is identical with the plant cover, then its smallest units cannot be other than the plant individuals that, collectively, constitute the plant cover! And, as there is no vegetation without soil (even the epiphytes depend on this, indirectly), in the evaluation of plant individuals, we cannot ignore that the above-ground parts are integral with roots and with these, a certain segment of the soil. From this, it also follows that it is not the biorophs that are parts of the biotope, but individual plants. The vegetation layers are also composed of individual plants, and there is some artificiality in their separation. The soil in which a plant grows its roots is more a property of the plant than are the neighbouring plants of each other. The plant cover, through their roots, is also a member of the association of soil-living beings, and profoundly influences its zoocoenological relationships (see Giljarov, 1949; Franz, 1950; Kühnelt, 1950; Jahn, 1951; Dudich, Balogh and Loksa, 1952; Feher et al., 1954), but this is also modified through the species composition of the plant cover, thus, ultimately, the individual plant also has an influence, and its animal association can be sharply different than that of a neighbouring plant that happens to be a different species. Even though a tree extends to all vertical levels, the animals living on it chiefly belong to the tree and, only additionally, often temporarily, to a certain bioroph. However, as the different individuals of the same species theoretically provide the same set of conditions, and thus the same reference frame, these obviously belong together and somehow form a part of the biotope. Therefore, how, based on the discussion above and, in view of previous attempts in the literature, do we establish the nomenclature of the smallest
