The Ecological Community

Abstract

No one organism lives in simple isolation, interacting, according to selfish physiological requirements, with its physical and chemical — abiotic — environment. Such a straightforward relationship is shattered by the fact that the individual shares its environment with other organisms of the same or different species; the simple interplay of organism and environment becomes confounded by a whole host of biotic factors. In brief, each organism is part of a complete community of creatures, each interacting with each other as well as with their abiotic environment, and each affecting each other’s use of the resources that they share.