Plant population question?

Question

In beginning a study of plant populations, you realize that individuals occur in different environmental conditions. How would you decide whether to treat plants as belonging to a single population or more then one?

Answer 1

I believe you are asking how to define a bioregion of a larger biome. A zonal scale portion of a biome or even smaller. Looking as a regional biotic community is in part dependent on how the larger system is defined. For example if are you looking at a grassland biome then first I would set out the larger determining parameters of biotic and abiotic parameters. Group the largest recognizable features such as climate factors or physical barriers. Name the dominant plant form eg. grasses in a savannah.  The community of plants that all live within this fixed edaphatic (soil limiting conditions) or climatic region form the regional plant community adapted to the shared conditions. The individual species may vary but there will be a uniform appearance when they share habitat requirements.

Rainfall and soil limits the plant community in grasslands. Areas with slightly greater rainfall may offer open shrub or xeric trees widely spaced but the basic grass & forb community will still be present. "The region will still have the dominant plant form in the same density, height of vegetation, color of vegetation, seasonal relationships (eg. evergreen vs. deciduousness), duration of life of species (life cycle, woody vs. herbaceous parts, and persistence of aboveground parts), and number of species. "

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