faciation Ecol.
(feɪsɪˈeɪʃən)
[f. L. faciēs + -ation.]
A community containing more than one of the dominant species in an association (often related to climatic or geographic differences in the area of the association).
| 1920 F. C. Clements Plant Indicators 276 The grouping of consociations within the association is typical of all climaxes, and seems to warrant a special term... It has seemed desirable to definitize the term facies for seral groupings and to make a new word, faciation, for climax groupings... The two terms conform to the mutual relation seen in associes and association, consocies and consociation. 1938, 1960 [see facies 2 c]. 1952 P. W. Richards Tropical Rain Forest xv. 319 Four ‘faciations’ of Evergreen Seasonal forest are recognized; more or less the same species occur in all of them but in different proportions. |