microenvironment

English

Etymology

From micro- +‎ environment.

Noun

microenvironment (plural microenvironments)

1. A very small area that has different characteristics than its surroundings; the milieu (set of conditions) within this area.
   • 1998 September 19, Jonathan Rauch, “Tunnel Vision: The Dawn of Microgovernment”, in National Journal‎, archived from the original on 6 March 2012:

     What was seen from the top down, as a large environment with many difficult trade-offs, is instead seen from the bottom up--as 10 million microenvironments, each to be regulated in its own right. It is this inversion of perspective that distinguishes microgovernment from other kinds of regulation, and that accounts for its often-bizarre behavior.

   1. (ecology) Synonym of microhabitat.
   2. (biology) The very small environment in the immediate vicinity of an organism.
      • 1992, Rudolf M[athias] Schuster, The Hepaticae and Anthocerotae of North America: East of the Hundredth Meridian, volume V, Chicago, Ill.: Field Museum of Natural History, →ISBN, pages 3-4:

        As with the Lejeuneaceae, this pattern of massive speciation appears to be correlated with the Cretaceous explosion of the angiosperms and the simultaneous creation of a host of new microenvironments, differing in humidity, light intensity, texture, etc.

Related terms

• microecology