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Microecosystems can exist in surprisingly many locations which are precisely defined by critical environmental factors within small or tiny spaces.
Such factors may include temperature, pH, chemical milieu, nutrient supply, presence of symbionts or solid substrates, gaseous atmosphere (aerobic or anaerobic) etc.
Some Examples
Pond microecosystems: These microecosystems with limited water volume are often only of temporary duration and hence colonized by organisms which possess a drought-resistant spore stage in the lifecycle, or by organisms which do not need to live in water continuously. The ecosystem conditions appliying at a typical pond edge can be quite different from those further from shore. Extremely space-limited water ecosystems can be found in the water collected in Bromeliad leaf bases, the "pitchers" of Nepenthes etc.
Animal gut microecosystems: These include the buccal region (especially cavities in thegingiva), rumen, caecum etc. of mammalian herbivores or even invertebrate digestive tracts. In the case of mammalian gastrointestinal microecology, microorganisms such as protozoa, bacteria, as well as curious incompletely defined organisms (such as certain large structurally-complex Selenomonads, Quinella ovalis "Quin's Oval", Magnoovum eadii "Eadie's Oval", Oscillospira etc.) can exist in the rumen as incredibly complex, highly enriched mixed populations, (see Moir and Masson 1952). This type of microecosystem can adjust rapidly to changes in the nutrition or health of the host animal (usually a ruminant such as cow, sheep, goat etc.); see Hungate's "The Rumen and its microbes 1966). Even within a small closed system such as the rumen there may exist a range of ecological conditions: Many organisms live freely in the rumen fluid whereas others require the substrate and metabolic products supplied by the stomach wall tissue with its folds and interstices. Interesting questions are also posed concerning the transfer of the strict anaerobe organisms in the gut microflora/microfauna to the next host generation. Here, mutual licking and coprophagy certainly play important roles.
Soil microecosystems: A typical soil microecosystem may be restricted to less than a millimeter in its total depth range owing to steep variation in humidity and/or atmospheric gas composition. The soil grain size and physical and chemical properties of the substrate may also play important roles. Because of the predominant solid phase in these systems they are notoriously difficult to study microscopically without simultaneously disrupting the fine spatial distribution of their components.
Terrestrial hot-springs microecosystems: These are defined by water temperature, nutrients, dissolved gases and differing salt concentrations etc. Along the path of terrestrial water flow the resulting temperature gradient alone may provide many different microecosystems, starting with thermophilic bacteria such as Archaea "Archaebacteria" (100+°C), followed by conventional thermophiles (60-100°C), cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) such as the motile filaments of Oscillatoria (30-60°C), protozoa such as Amoeba, then conventional green algae (0-30°C) etc. Of course other factors than temperature also play important roles. Hot springs provide classic and straightforward ecosystems for both studying microecology and searching for hitherto undescribed organisms.
Deep-sea microecosystems: The best known contain rare specialized organisms, found only in the immediate region of underwater volcanic vents (or "smokers"). These systems require specialized diving and collection techniques for their scientific exploration.
Closed microecosystem: One that is sealed and compleatly inderpendent of outside factors, except for tempeture and light. A good example would be a plant contained in a sealed jar and submurged under water. No new factors would be able to enter this ecosystem.
"Microecosystem"