biotope Ecol.
(ˈbaɪətəʊp)
Also biotop.
[ad. G. biotop, f. Gr. τόπος place.]
The smallest subdivision of a habitat, characterized by a high degree of uniformity in its environmental conditions and in its plant and animal life.
| 1927 Biol. Abstr. 593/1 A true association is the population of a biotop. Distinction is made between biotop and habitat. 1936 Proc. Prehist. Soc. II. 64 Taken as a whole this assemblage suggests a tundra biotope. 1937 Allee & Schmidt tr. Hesse's Ecol. Animal Geogr. ix. 135 The primary topographic unit is the ‘niche’ or ‘biotope’. Such a unit is an area of which the principal habitat conditions and the living forms which are adapted to them are uniform. 1937 [see biochore]. 1962 H. Hanson Dict. Ecol. 55 Biotope, the smallest geographic unit of a habitat..e.g., a decaying stump, a sandy beach. |