What is the natural community, its role in protecting the environment

What is the natural community, Or, scientifically, a biocenosis? The very phrase implies such a collective, where all members influence each other, mutually depend and interact with each other. But what does this term mean in nature? In the same way as in the human society, plants, animals, birds and insects are linked to each other by the term "food chain". Let's take the simplest example: in the field grow cereals; In search of grain, mice come there and dig their mink in the ground. They are hunted by snakes, who also settle in the field. Eagles do not disdain neither rodents nor vipers and circling over the field, looking for food.

So, we begin to answer the question about what is the natural community. It should be mentioned that the concept of biocenosis is rather difficult. It also includes elements of inanimate nature - soils, humidity, relief and climate. At first glance it seems that plants and animals can not influence such global things as climatic features of the terrain. Because the latter directly depend on the geographical latitude or altitude above sea level. Of course, one pine "weather will not do," but the thick forest with its cool shade is a striking contrast to the neighboring meadow, where the air trembles from the heat. The moisture content of the culverts is also affected. Therefore, if a person has conceived to drain swamps, he plants them with certain plant species.

Determining, What is the natural community, We must not forget that biocenoses are dynamic entities. They can change. So, if the river changes the channel, swamps form from old lakes. Those turn into meadows, and the fields in turn are covered with bushes and trees. Throughout this metamorphosis, which lasts about a hundred years, there is a complete change in the flora and fauna of this area. Man also contributes - parks are nothing more than an artificially created, anthropogenic biocenosis.

Each such system has its own inhabitants. In the desert there are only about a dozen species. The coral reef includes several hundred species of fish, mollusks, crustaceans, sponges and corals. And all of them - from the simplest plankton to sharks - play a certain role in the vital activity of this complex macro-organism, which is the natural community. The forest is a very revealing example of how the inhabitants of the thicket maintain the balance of the ecosystem. Trees, growing on gray soils, saturate them with mineral substances from fallen leaves. Insects, which we call "pests", are a valuable food for forest birds. Even predators destroy only diseased and weakened animals, thereby supporting the gene pool of prey.

Natural community "meadow" Is also a closed ecosystem to a certain extent, although it is inhabited by forest and steppe inhabitants. But such animals as gopher and saiga, as well as Kipchak and feather grass, are found only in the steppes. All these biocenoses - tundra, taiga, forests, meadows, lakes, seas, semi-deserts and deserts, jungles, alpine meadows and a highland zone of lichens and mosses - interact with each other and form a single living shell of the planet Earth - the biosphere.

In the matter of protecting the environment, it is very important to understand what the natural community is. And realize that all its inhabitants are, without exception, useful for maintaining a delicate balance Of this ecosystem. The disappearance of only one species can lead to irreversible changes in the entire biocenosis according to the domino principle . Let us recall at least what the war with sparrows in the PRC of the Mao Tse Dong era led to: the locust population increased uncontrollably.