Geoecology is the study of the multifaceted relationships that exist between substrate and biota. Parent materials, climate, topography, and time determine the kind of substrate that becomes available for colonization by biota, and their habitation further influences the nature of the substrate upon which plants grow and animals and microbes dwell. Humans have long observed the special associations between organisms and their substrate, and such knowledge has served as the foundation of biogeoprospecting, the use of organisms as indicators of minerals and chemical elements found within geologic material.
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