Article

The representation of habitats against axes of relative stress and relative disruption of growth opportunities, as conceived by Southwood and by Grime, provide helpful templates to which organisms may be fitted according to their abilities to cope with the habitat constraints. More than that, the template may be developed as a kind of"filter", whose porosity is set by the habitat, and the species whose traits allow them to pass the filter will be candidate components of the community structures likely to emerge.