Biocoenosis

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A biocenosis (UK English, biocoenosis, also biocenose, biocoenose, biotic community, biological community, ecological community, life assemblage), coined by Karl Möbius in 1877, describes the interacting organisms living together in a habitat (biotope).^[1] The use of this term has declined in the 21st сentury.

In the palaeontological literature, the term distinguishes "life assemblages", which reflect the original living community, living together at one place and time. In other words, it is an assemblage of fossils or a community of specific time, which is different from "death assemblages" (thanatocoenoses).^[2] No palaeontological assemblage will ever completely represent the original biological community (i.e. the biocoenosis, in the sense used by an ecologist); the term thus has somewhat different meanings in a palaeontological and an ecological context.^[2]

Based on the concept of biocenosis, ecological communities can take various forms:

• Zoocenosis for the faunal community,
• Phytocenosis for the flora community,
• Microbiocenosis for the microbial community.

The geographical extent of a biocenose is limited by the requirement of a more or less uniform species composition.