concept

Dominant species

The species holding the largest share of a community's biomass, usually by monopolising a limiting resource such as light or nutrients. Worth separating from a foundation species: every foundation species is abundant, but not every abundant species is a foundation — that requires other species to depend on its physical structure to live. A grass blanketing a meadow is dominant; an old tree with hundreds of species sheltering in its cavities and growing on its bark is both dominant and foundational.