Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A transitional zone between two communities containing the characteristic species of each.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In phytogeography, the line along which two types of vegetation compete for the same ground. See
tension-line .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a transition area between two adjacent ecological communities (
ecosystems ).
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Remember the tree line is not a line, but an ecotone, which is the case of latitudinal tree ‘lines’ can be very broad.
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Give it a zone of transition — an ecotone — where both land and water can be occupied simultaneously.
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The scrubland (cotos) and heathland ecotone (vera) are the richest habitats for most animals apart from waterbirds.
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The heathland (vera) which forms a narrow ecotone between the dunes and the marsh and also covers the land furthest from the Guadalquiver, is a series of low ridges and hollows.
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The extensive ecotone between boreal forest and tundra (a tree line 13500 km long) is a prominent feature of the northern boreal region (some of the major climate-related fluctuations of the tree line are discussed in Chapter 14).
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The transition zone has been called forest tundra, subarctic, and the tundra – taiga boundary or ecotone.
Introduction to Arctic Tundra and Polar Desert Ecosystems 2009
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Geometrid moths of two species occur in the mountain birch (Betula pubescens ssp. czerepanovii) forest that makes up the ecotone between boreal forest and the tundra of Fennoscandia.
Climate change and insects as a forest disturbance in the Arctic 2009
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Arctic lands are extensive beyond the northern limit of the tundra – taiga ecotone, encompassing an area of approximately 7,567,000 square-kilometers (km2), including about 2,560,000 km2 in the former Soviet Union and Scandinavia, 2480000 km2 in Canada, 2167000 km2 in Greenland and Iceland, and 360000 km2 in Alaska [8].
Introduction to Arctic Tundra and Polar Desert Ecosystems 2009
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Landscape-scale interactions between vegetation and disturbance are particularly important in the forest – tundra ecotone [53] where vegetation change is very likely to have large feedbacks to climate [54].
Climate change in relation to carbon uptake and carbon storage in the Arctic 2009
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Transient ecotone response to climatic change: some conceptual and modeling approaches.
Climate change in relation to carbon uptake and carbon storage in the Arctic 2009
kewpid commented on the word ecotone
The intersection or overlap between two ecosystems.
December 10, 2007
qms commented on the word ecotone
Each language will feature a zone
Where high words and humble are sown,
And Ernest is hungry
To harvest the fungi
That grow in that rich ecotone.
See also diglossia.
Find out more about Ernest Bafflewit
December 21, 2014