What is a natural community, or, scientifically, a biocenosis? This phrase itself implies a collective where all members influence each other, are mutually dependent and interact with each other. But what does this term mean in nature? In the same way as in human society, plants, animals, birds and insects are connected with each other by the concept of “food chain”. Take the simplest example: cereals grow on the field; in search of grain, mice come there and dig their minks in the ground. They are hunted by snakes, which also settle in the field. Eagles do not disdain either rodents or vipers and circling over the field, looking for food.
So, we begin to answer the question of what a natural community is. It should be noted that the concept of biocenosis is quite complicated. It also includes elements of inanimate nature - soils, humidity, topography and climate. At first glance, it seems that plants and animals cannot influence such global things as the climatic features of the area. After all, the latter directly depend on geographical latitude or altitude. Of course, one pine tree will not "make weather", but the dense forest with its cool shadow is a striking contrast to the neighboring meadow, where the air trembles with heat. Drainage trees also have an effect on humidity. Therefore, if a person has decided to drain the swamps, he plants them with certain plant species.
When determining what a natural community is, one cannot forget that biocenoses are dynamic formations. They are subject to change. So, if the river changes its course, swamps form from old lakes. Those turn into meadows, and even the fields, in turn, are covered with shrubs 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 but 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 has several hundred species of fish, shellfish, crustaceans, sponges and corals. And all of them - from simple plankton to sharks - play a role in the life of this complex macro-organism, which is the natural community. The forest is a very good example of how thicket inhabitants maintain an ecosystem balance. Trees growing on gray soils saturate them with mineral substances from fallen leaves. Insects, which we call pests, are valuable food for forest birds. Even predators destroy only sick and weakened animals, thereby supporting the gene pool of prey.
The natural meadow community is also, to a certain extent, a closed ecosystem, although the inhabitants of forests and steppes enter it. But such animals as ground squirrels and saigas, as well as kipchak and feather grass plants, are found only in the steppes. All these biocenoses - tundra, taiga, forests, meadows, lakes, seas, semi-deserts and deserts, jungles, alpine meadows and alpine zones of lichens and mosses - interact with each other and form a single living shell of planet Earth - the biosphere.
In the matter of environmental protection, it is very important to understand what a natural community is. And to realize that, without exception, its inhabitants are useful for maintaining the fragile balance of this ecosystem. The disappearance of just one species can entail irreversible changes in the entire biocenosis, according to the domino principle. Let us recall, for example, what the war with sparrows in the PRC of the era of Mao Tse Dong led to: the number of locusts grew uncontrollably.
