Biocoenosis

[2] Based on the concept of biocenosis, ecological communities can take various forms: The geographical extent of a biocenose is limited by the requirement of a more or less uniform species composition.

An ecosystem, originally defined by Tansley (1935), is a biotic community (or biocenosis) along with its physical environment (or biotope).

These relationships are an additional consideration to the interaction of each species with the physical environment.

A method of delineating biotic communities is to map the food network to identify which species feed upon which others and then determine the system boundary as the one that can be drawn through the fewest consumption links relative to the number of species within the boundary.

The Australian Department of the Environment and Heritage maintains a register of Threatened Species and Threatened Ecological Communities under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (EPBC Act).