WHAT ARE TRANSITIONAL ENVIRONMENTS? - ENVIRONMENT - 2026

The transition environments, transition ecosystems or ecotones, are the areas of nature where two different ecosystems converge, between which there is a meeting point called the ecological border or border.

In this type of ecosystem, various factors of the flora and fauna of each of the biological communities interact. Due to different climatic and environmental conditions, particular adaptation mechanisms develop between one another.

The word ecotone comes etymologically from the Greek term "eco" which means house, and "tone" which means tension. The study of ecotones has gained great importance in recent times, since it is precisely in those areas where changes are manifested much faster than those ordinarily known in homogeneous ecosystems.

Thanks to the point of confluence and intersection, in most cases there is a flowering and growth of plant and animal species that exceed the density of the existing species in the adjacent communities.

General aspects of transitional environments

Transitional environments are usually small in extent compared to that of neighboring ecosystems. This is the case of the confluences of rivers and seas with their respective land coasts, the foothills where the flat areas join the mountainous ones and the border zone between the meadow and the forest.

It is very common for predators to find more prey to hunt in these transitional environments than in their original habitat. This is because it offers a much smaller field of action with greater transit of species.

There are also some much broader transitional environments, for example between vast desert areas and forested areas, tundras with polar areas, and the edges of great forests.

Misconception about ecotones

For a long time it was thought that transition ecosystems tended to impoverish soils, even to cause the disappearance of animal and insect species due to the abrupt change in the boundary or stress zone.

However, more recent studies have shown that thanks to the natural adaptation of living beings in a state of constant tension, ecotones are more fruitful areas with a high degree of biological development.

Transitional environments due to human influence

In view of the fact that the presence of man has manifested itself overwhelmingly on the surface of the planet in the last hundred years due to population growth, there are currently transitional environments created as a result of human impact and alterations in natural areas.

Human societies have become important generators of ecotones. The presence of towns, infrastructures and resource extraction activities has modified natural ecosystems, creating these types of spaces of biological tension on borders.

Because human activities have developed an unnatural proliferation of transitional environments, the number of border animals is much higher than there were 50 years ago.

This has led to various ecological problems, such as the expansion and overpopulation of some species, a consequence of the abundance of easy food and the absence of natural predators in this new ecotone.

References

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