Ecotone - Nature and Structure of Community

The zone of vegetation separating two different types of communities is called ecotone. It is also known as a transition zone. The border between forest and grassland, the bank of a stream running through a meadow are examples of ecotones.

Ecotone is a region where the influence of two different patterns of environment work together and hence the vegetation of ecotones are highly specialised. An ecotone may be narrow or wide. For instance, the ecotones between adjacent plots-one fenced and protected from grazing, and other without fence and openly exposed to grazing; or between a pond and an adjacent upland are quite sharp and narrow whereas among many other types of communities ecotones are very wide and community boundary differentiation is not easy.