In ecology there is such a term - biocenosis. Simply put, it denotes the totality of all living beings living in a particular area, as well as the structure of their relationships. In order to ensure the normal coexistence of different creatures in a biocenosis, a rather complex system of relationships and dependencies is inevitably developed, which forms a natural community. So what are we talking about? The natural community is the interconnection of elements of animate and inanimate nature in a certain geographical space. There are natural communities created by nature, and communities that man has built - artificial.
In addition to internal relationships, such as food relationships, each natural community is closely related to certain terrain and climate conditions, determined by factors of inanimate nature. In science, an area of inanimate nature associated with a particular biological community is called a biotope. As a natural biotope, territories of various sizes can be considered: forest, steppe, desert, mainland. A natural community (field, meadow, pond, etc.) of a smaller biotope will in any case be part of a natural community belonging to a larger biotope.
Nutritional relationships -this is the basic form of connections in the biocenosis. From food relationships, so-called food chains are built. An example of an elementary food chain is this: a predator eats a herbivore that eats plants.
Plants inhabiting the natural community in most cases do not eat anyone, as a source of energy they use the process of photosynthesis, directly related to sunlight. Usually food chains are much more complicated, because, firstly, larger predators can feed on smaller ones, so the cat will gladly eat an insectivorous tit or a predatory pike. Second, many animals are relatively omnivorous, such as the bear. Thirdly, you need to understand that food chains are largely closed, since corpses and waste products are processed by a special class of creatures - saprophages, among which fungi and bacteria predominate, and then consumed by plants from the soil.
But the connections between living organisms inhabiting the natural community are not limited to food only, they are much more diverse. One of the most telling examples is, of course, the participation of animals and insects in the reproduction cycle of many plant species. It is insects that in most cases pollinate flowering plants, and animals often take part in the distribution of seeds. Other examples of such symbiosis include the existence of bacteria in the microflora of the stomach of animals or an anemone that settled onhermit crab shell. In most cases, the symbiosis is beneficial to all participants, but even if it is a parasitic type of symbiosis, when one of the symbionts is harmed, it will be an important part of the natural community as a whole.
