It refers to the landform, the rocks and the soils, the climate and the hydrology, and the geologic processes which marshalled all these resources together in a certain way and in this time and place[1] Specifically, the physiotope denotes spatially explicit functional landscape units that can stratify landscapes into distinct units resulting from geological, morphological and soil processes.
[3] As such, resources used in mapping physiotopes strictly pertain to those implicated in the development and evolution of abiotic components of ecosystems.
[4] Physiotopes can be utilized in mapping landscapes to help study the relation between abiotic and biotic parts of nature (eg.
of one area can impact how biotic elements grow) in both land[5] and aquatic ecosystems.
[6] They can also be used for analyzing land-use development in relation to geography for insights into policy implications.