Biotic Community

Biotic community is an association of a number of interrelated and independent populations belonging to different species, in a common environment which can survive in nature.

Biotic community comprises a number of populations of different species interacting between them and the abiotic environment. These populations include animal community, plant community and 'microbial community', sharing a common environment and exhibit various types of direct or indirect relationship among themselves.

Examples of biotic community are pond community, grassland community, forest community etc.

Relationship between Species in a Genus and Species in a Community

Both genus and community are formed of many species. But the two differ from each other in some basic characters.

Species in a genus have a common ancestry. They occur in different geographical regions and often have no functional relation or interaction among them.

Species in community do not have a common ancestry. They inhabit a common environment and have direct or indirect functional relation or interaction between them.

Differences between genus and community

Characters	Species in a genus	Species in a community
Evolutionary relationship	Different species of a genus have a common ancestory	Different species of a community have different ancestory
Occurence	Species in a genus generally occur in different geographical areas	Species in a community inhabit a common environment
Functional relationship	Species do not have any functional relation or interaction among them	Species have a direct or indirect functional relation or interaction among them