habitattypen

Habitattypen, or habitat types, are distinct, naturally occurring living spaces that provide the environmental conditions and resources required for particular organisms or communities to survive and reproduce. They are defined by a combination of abiotic factors—climate, topography, soil, and hydrology—and biotic features such as vegetation structure and species assemblages, as well as by the disturbance regime that shapes their dynamics.

Habitattypen are used in ecology, conservation, and land management to organize knowledge about biodiversity and to guide planning and restoration. They can be broad categories like forests, grasslands, wetlands, rivers and lakes, and coastal or marine habitats, or more fine-grained groups such as temperate deciduous forest, boreal forest, alpine meadow, salt marsh, or mangrove.

Mapping and assessment rely on field surveys, remote sensing, and GIS, and are often organized using standardized classification schemes. International and national inventories—such as the EUNIS classification or country-specific habitat inventories—support comparability across regions and time.

Habitats are dynamic and respond to natural fluctuations and human influence. Climate change, land-use change, pollution, and invasive species can shift the distribution and integrity of habitattypen, sometimes requiring restoration or targeted protection to preserve ecosystem services and biodiversity.