History and Evalution of Various Concepts of Plant and Animal Communities in North America

A community is a unit aggregation of organisms made up of a distinct combination of species. That certain species are ordinarily found together and are characteristic of certain habitats has doubtless been common knowledge since intelligent man first evolved. In the fourth century, B.C., Theophrastus, a friend of Aristotle, recognized that associated plant species may interact among themselves and with their environment. As a consequence he has sometimes been considered the first ecologist (Ramaley 1940). Grisebach, however, has been credited (Gleason 1939) for having presented in 1838 the first modern discussion of the integrated nature of plant communities. Mobius' account of an oyster biocoenose in 1877 is one of the first descriptions of an integrated animal community. Forbes showed in 1887 how plants and animals living together in lakes form a self-sufficient microcosm. That plants and animals are essential interacting elements in all communities led to the development of the biome concept in the present century by Frederic E. Clements and Victor E. Shelford. It is the purpose of this paper to trace the historical development and application of this concept and to evaluate it in relation to other methods of analyzing plant and animal distribution. I wish to acknowledge at this point the helpful suggestions of my colleagues who read parts or all of the manuscript in its preliminary form, especially Dr. Hobart M. Smith, herpetologist; Dr. D. F. Hoffmeister, mammalogist; Dr. Harvey I. Fisher, ornithologist; and Dr. A. G. Vestal, plant ecologist.