Fig. 3

Typical formulation of an experimental habitat class in the ENVO’s automatically generated habitat content. Here, the environmental system which can support the survival and growth of a population of Equus zebra is represented. Based on the Encyclopedia of Life’s descriptions of the environments in which such populations are typically found, their habitat is represented as an environmental system which overlaps these environments. The boundaries of the habitat are determined by the physiological tolerances of the organisms: the habitat ends where the potential for an organism (or mating pair of organisms) to survive and/or increase their population size is no more. See text for comments on handling different definitions of ‘habitat’. Green borders indicate ENVO classes, while orange borders represent PCO classes