[The conception of plants community: the history and the modern state of the art].

Abstract

After discussion of many years about the nature of plants community, within the science dealing with vegetation the consensus is reached on pragmatic basis. Most researchers consider plants community as conditionally uniform contour marked out of the multi-dimensional continuum of any type of vegetation. Plants community is a generic notion, within the framework of which types with different models of organization are established. With any type of plants community organization model, the main factor of species association remains to be the ecotope which plays the role of an abiotic matrix. The main traits of a plants community are species composition, its structure, species interrelations, and functional parameters. The main types of species interrelations within a plants community appear to be competition and non-competitive formation of environment. The important role in organization of plant communities belongs to heterotrophic organisms such as phytophages, nitrogen-fixing procaryotes, mycorrhizal fungi, pathogens, and others.