Habitats
What are some of the different habitats and how do they relate to each other?
All creatures live in a habitat. And we human beings are part of this. We are fortunate in that we can live just about anywhere, in any habitat – and we do. Even habitats such as the moon or Mars are becoming possible. So, what exactly is a habitat?
Habitat – The physical environment that provides organisms with their basic needs for survival: food, water, shelter, and space.
Most other living creatures are not as fortunate as we are. Consider birds: a Ruffed Grouse will thrive in the habitat of woodlands and clearings in Pennsylvania and New York – not in the bayous of Louisiana. Wilson’s Storm Petrel thrives living over the ocean off our Atlantic coasts, not over the Great Salt Lake in Utah. The Cactus Wren thrives in our southwestern deserts, not in the forests of Maine. So, what does a particular habitat provide and what does it lack? That will determine what plants and animals can and cannot live there. Habitat is of the greatest importance to everything living on this earth.
Following are some definitions of the major habitats:
Desert – a landscape where little precipitation occurs. The soil can either be sandy, gravelly, or stony. Annual rainfall/precipitation is less than 10 inches and sometimes there will be no rainfall at all.
Edge – the spaces that exist between two different types of ecosystems or habitats. For example, the boundary between a forest and a meadow is an edge habitat.
Forest and woodland – It was John Wilker, Illinois Department of Natural Resources Natural Area Program Manager who best explained the difference to me. “Land is classified as ‘woodland’ when there are about 50-100 trees per acre. In other words, the entire piece of land being considered would be 50-80% covered with trees and sunlight would filter through the leaves to the ground. Land classified as ‘forest’ would have 100-200 trees per acre – the entire piece of land would be 80-100% covered with trees and the canopy would be dense allowing little sunlight through to the ground. In a woodland, there would be more saplings and understory than in a forest.
Grassland – a large open area of country covered with grass, especially one used for grazing.
Meadow – a piece of grassland, especially one used for hay.
Prairie – A native grassland in North America characterized by grasses, forbs, and a relative absence of trees.
Forbs – A name given to any flowering herbaceous plant – for example: wildflowers.
Herbaceous plant – plants that have no persistent woody stems above ground. Plants with woody stems are shrubs. Herbaceous plants are most perennials and nearly all annuals and biennials.
Savanna – a fire-maintained plant community of grasses and forbs with widely scattered fire-tolerant tree species. A grassland dotted with trees that occurs in several types of biomes.
Biome – A major regional or global biotic community such as a grassland or desert, characterized chiefly by the dominant forms of plant life and the prevailing climate.
Wetland – an area where water covers the soil, or is present either at or near the surface of the soil, all year or for varying periods of time during the year, including during the growing season. It is land in which water is the controlling factor in the environment, it is characterized by hydric soil, and has plants that tolerate life or thrive in water or saturated soil.
Hydric soil – Soil that is wet most of the year and that is low in oxygen.
These definitions are quoted and paraphrased from:
- Master Naturalist East Central Illinois, Macon County instruction manual. University of Illinois Extension.
- Environmental Protection Agency
- Oxford Dictionary and Merriam Webster Dictionary
- National Geographic
- Wikipedia