The transition between biomes can be identified by the exstance of a clear boundary and this limit can change due to fires, cultivation, drought or climatic change. Season, month and day are time variables within each biome cycle and are not affecting basic structure unless they compete with some major component contingency across years or decades.

So temporal ecotone is meaningless?

I think it is. Try to fugure a spider that wakes only at summer or at night and a biome spider+ next to one spider -. If you check for an ecotone in winter or at noon you wont find any border. With the best

Life is a multi-dimensional (at least four-dimensional phenomenon), therefore all life-processes within the temporal dimension (such as mass species migrations, succession, rejuvenation) may create changes to ecological systems and thus ecotones.

In addition, as Holland (1988) suggests "An ecotone is a zone of transition between adjacent ecological systems, having a set of characteristics uniquely defined by space and time scales and by the strength of the interactions between adjacent ecological systems"

This one might help you get a better idea on ecotones:

Holland M.M. (compiler) (1988) SCOPE/MAP technical consultations on landscape boundaries: report of a SCOPE/MAP workshop on ecotones. Biology International, Special Issue 17: 47-106

dear Dr Katselidis, a border that moves according to observation schedule looks like a vagary. I do not have HollandMM on the shelf, but i Guess we are thinking of yearly contingencies (tables of occurrence TAKEN YEARLY). With best regards.

Each season has it's specific plant composition (specially in grasslands), looking in time, we find a marked phase with the vegetation of both seasons. What is the name of this phase?

I think there is some confusion in the definition of "temporal ecotones" above. While what is typically considered an ecotone is a narrow zone of transition between two relatively stable communities/ecosystems, a temporal ecotone is a time of rapid transition in community composition between two ~stable communities through time. Where you see the term most commonly in recent publications is in temporary stream studies, where you have a stable stream/aquatic community for part of the year, a terrestrial system for part of the year, and during the short period of transition inbetween you have the temporal ecotone. See, for example, Larned, S., Datry, T., Robinson, C. (2007). Invertebrate and microbial responses to inundation in an ephemeral river reach in New Zealand: effects of preceding dry periods. Aquatic Sciences 69: 554 - 567

fires, frost and flood are examples of timed events and there are clear boundaries around them in time and space. going back to ME enquiry i think that the seasonal variation is a biome characteristic issue and i would classify it by 'season a, b...' in a biometric table of species contingency. if another biome is nearby this diversity would appear by chi squared or other tests run on seasonality tables, not necessarily for an ecotone but possibly due to pH, water table, rocky soil, pesticides ..... sorry for being not-so-clear

dear Mohammad, i am not familiar with any specific English term that describes what you want. you might want to use general terms like "in between seasons" or "intermediate season".

dear Dr. Bongi and Dr. Duggan, thank you for your time in commenting to my response, but according to my knowledge and current literature, ecotones cannot be defined, generally, as narrow or wide, neither in space or time. The extent of ecotones depends on the ecological systems under study. According to Higler, Lapinska and Zalewski* "The boundary between two different ecological systems is seldom an abrupt one, but nearly always a gradual one. Its physical width may differ from centimeters to kilometers, depending on the systems considered, but the mutual influences may reach much further.".

In addition, ecotones (although independent from the observation) do "move" across time, the temporal dimension. As the above authors suggest "the ecotones manifest across a range of temporal scales: daily, seasonal, annual and successional.".

In general, the ecotones term is in use by UNESCO.

http://www.unesco.org/new/en/phnompenh/about-this-office/single-view/news/mab_ecotone_phase_ii#.UoX34DkvAbw

http://portal.unesco.org/geography/en/ev.php-URL_ID=11347&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Food for thought can be found in Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (just search "ecotones")

http://www.eolss.net

best wishes

* Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems, FRESH SURFACE WATER – Vol. II - Ecotones - L.W.G. Higler, Lapinska M., Zalewski M.

dear Kostas best whishes to you, I guess you catch that the negation of a meaning does not imply a solution. The numerical form of the 'thing' under scrutiny is a contingency table or the numerosity and type of species list according to season. The difference test between 2 cases follows statistics and seldom is sufficiently defined as ecotomes should. this depends on how fine and keen the protocol was. Thanks to all

Kostas Katselidis: Ecotones are boundaries between ecosystems, but not all boundaries between ecosystems are ecotones. Ecotones are typically considered to be narrow, dynamic, boundaries. For example, see: Backeus I (1993) Ecotone vs Ecocline: vegetation zonation and dynamics around a small reservoir in Tanzania. Journal of Biogeography 20: 209-216, or: van der Maarel E. (1990) Ecotones and ecoclines are different. Journal of Vegetation Science 1: 135-138.

Regardless, the original question related to "temporal ecotones", which are not the same as ecotones between adjacent ecosystems. As already noted, a temporal ecotone is a time of rapid transition in community composition between two ~stable communities through time. It is not a spatial boundary that is of concern; time is the essential element.

I suppose you could also apply the term 'temporal ecotone' to the overlaps between different groups of migratory species? For example, in Australia some bird species over-winter in wetlands around Australia before moving south for the summer, while others breed in wetlands during the Australian summer before moving north to southern Asia for the northern temperate summer. There should thus be two times each year when these two groups of migrants overlap, briefly swelling the species count before the communities settle back to their normal summer or winter diversity patterns.

seasonality is a season or a tone? whatever the answer I think semantics are solved by the operation required to support Holland's 1991 definition, that has benn supported by one major review: (Eco Res Hufkens 06, Ecotone) A multi-dimensional environmentally stochastic

interaction° zone between ecological systems with

characteristics defined in space and time, and by the

strength of the interaction°. Each term implies a proof

..or that the presence of a neighbour modifies a behaviour. 2 or more dimensions are involved in the scheme and their statistics are still under debate but an edge detection is mandatory from Laplace derivatives to Wombling. The first step is collecting contingency tables, possibly a silly suggestion to a keen scientist. Sorry for truncation