Habitat classification: Discussion

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A. P. DRUCE said the speakers were aware of the importance of the concept of habitats, but it was apparent that marine and fresh-water ecologists were far ahead of land ecologists since they based their habitat classification on the physical environment. Dr. Forster based his habitat classification on vegetation, but what is the habitat, say, of tussock grassland? Reference must eventually be made to the physical environment, but difficulties arIse where there is apparently one habitat on physical criteria but more than one distinct community. For land environments the actual communities must be considered together with physical factors.
K. E. LEE said he was taking part in a project directed at measuring the physical and chemical changes in soil in relation to climate. The measurements were only relative and it is not possible to measure precisely any physical characteristic of soil or climate except as it applies to one specific point which must be chosen and is not necessarily typical of a larger area. This is probably true not only of the soil environment.