Oldal 97 [97]
§ The limits of animal communities. The concept of supersocion | 95
its plant and small animal associations, as well as the environmental conditions,
the necessary micro- and macroclimate.
The red deer does not associate with the stag beetle, the hazelnut weevil,
the beech tree and the lily-of-the-valley, but all that these represent, collectively,
are necessary components of the deer’s energy source; they are the first level
of the food chain which also contains the deer.
This relationship with the presocium is direct in the case of all the
insectivorous vertebrates and, also, the related catena and catenaria. The
relationship is indirect for vertebrates that have a role of corrumpents, but
the relationship, nevertheless holds, because - as we have proven earlier ¬
the current condition of the plant cover would not have formed without the
humus-forming and sustaining activities of the communities of smaller
animals (as sustinent elements).
The four above-mentioned categories, even if each has a spatial aspect,
reflect a non-spatial nature of the zoocoenosis. The borders of the zoocoenoses
should, therefore, not be drawn by area, but through considering the stable
and temporary populations constituting a food chain.
The factors holding an association together, among which there are spatial
influences, also make it possible that we can largely delimit the four categories,
albeit not without accepting transitional zones caused by the presence of
temporary elements. These catenaria do not have a nested structure, the
bigger ones including the smaller ones, but a bigger category intrudes into
the smaller one to a certain degree; the presocium into the catenae or catenaria,
the supersocion into the presocium. The sites of these intrusions are the
transitional zones, where one category overlaps with another one, but,
otherwise, all categories have non-overlapping domains, and these allow a
sharp distinction between the various associative categories.
In the oak tree catenarium, a presocium formed by Lymantria dispar can
intrude, but the zone of contact is limited largely to corrumpent elements,
while most of the obstants are linked only to the populations of Lymantria,
and not to other populations in the catenarium. Above a presocium formed
around polyphagous, soil-living populations of insect larvae a supersocion
can extend, represented by the vole Microtus arvalis where, again, only the
corrumpent elements are involved.
§ THE NOMENCLATURE OF ANIMAL ASSOCIATIONS
Discussing the concepts of catena and catenarium, we presented how we
conceptualise the nomenclature of communities. In the following pages, we
provide examples of practical use and discuss the terms presocium and
supersocion, as well as the general considerations concerning terminology.
We emphasise that only the term catena is unchangeable, as it follows from
the fact that a catena is built around a single corrumpent, or other,