Oldal 147 [147]
§ Synphysiological characteristics | 145
The two definitions clearly mirror the difficulties, currently unresolvable,
that stand in the way of clarifying these characteristics. To measure the
transformatum of a given unit of area or volume, not even considering the
measurement error, is open to serious inaccuracies when we try to assess
larger areas. Given the large and uneven dispersion of populations, and their
irregular distribution, several authors (such as Kuehnelt, 1950) justly warn
against measurement on an exaggerated scale. This difficulty becomes even
more acute when we attempt to calculate gravitas, because this is a relative
characteristic, and has to be related to data that, themselves, stand on unreliable
foundations.
We would like to point out a few additional considerations. A bigger body
mass does not necessarily mean higher food consumption because, to truly
assess this, we need to know the assimilation efficiency as well. A great many
animals hibernate, for shorter or longer periods. Such a population can hardly
be compared to others, whose members remain fully active during the period
of study. Once we extend our attention to such aspects, the question of
transformatum becomes devilishly complicated. The correct answer, especially
for populations with two or more coetus values gets lost in the labyrinth of
pre- and supersocia, and the transformatum of populations undergoing a
change of coetus, or biotope that may originate from a totally different biotope
and/or zoocoenosis.
Based on the above, we have to conclude that both the transformatum
and the gravitas are characteristics that merit our attention, and that can
prove very useful to unearth surprising relationships — at a more advanced
level of zoocoenological study, after removing the methodological difficulties.
Currently, however, they do not belong to the group of essential coenological
characteristics. Ultimately, studies of biomass consider living material, and
the attention of production biology is directed towards species representations
that contain the largest mass of living material, as these are the principal
nodes of manifestations of life. Zoocoenology is concerned, chiefly, with the
forms of living material, and how these life forms are grouped along the
massive flow of energy. The quantitative nature of this question is undeniable,
yet it is even more certain that it is, firstly, a qualitative one. These are such
fine nuances of animal associations that they cannot be approached by the
major, not to say crude, methods of mass relations. Parasitology, for example,
provides ample examples to indicate that a “small” mass can substantially
disturb a much greater mass, and at the physiological level (Kotlan 1953).
This would hardly be evaluated appropriately as a matter of mass relations,
as the essence of the problem cannot be approached by this route. For this
reason, the zoocoenological importance of characteristics of mass relations
need to be re-evaluated and, therefore, we expanded the quantitative
characteristics with the qualitative concepts of degrees of corrumpency, or
of obstancy.