mikrohabitate

Mikrohabitate is the small-scale habitat niche within a larger ecosystem that provides unique abiotic and biotic conditions enabling certain species or communities to persist. While the broader term microhabitat is common in ecology, Mikrohabitate is used here to emphasize the focused scale of the concept.

Mikrohabitate is characterized by variation in moisture, temperature, light, substrate, and shelter. It is shaped by microtopography, litter depth, soil properties, rock crevices, bark, and root zones, and it can host organisms such as bryophytes, lichens, meiofauna, microarthropods, and small invertebrates.

Ecologically, Mikrohabitate contributes to biodiversity by providing refugia, promoting niche differentiation, and buffering against environmental variability. Micro-scale differences create habitat heterogeneity that supports multiple species, influences community assembly, and can affect ecosystem processes like decomposition and nutrient cycling.

Researchers study Mikrohabitate through micro-sampling, microclimate sensing, leaf-litter and soil core collection, pitfall traps, and high-resolution imaging, often coupled with habitat association models and fine-scale mapping to understand distribution and preferences.

Conservation and management aim to preserve Mikrohabitate diversity to support specialists, increase landscape resilience, and inform restoration. In urban and agricultural settings, maintaining varied ground cover, woody debris, crevices, and sheltered micro-sites helps sustain complex, small-scale ecosystems.