microenvironment

Noun

microenvironment (plural microenvironments)

1. A very small area that has different characteristics than its surroundings; the milieu (set of conditions) within this area.
   • 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...1998 September 19, Jonathan Rauch, “Tunnel Vision: The Dawn of Microgovernment”, in National Journal, archived from the original on 06 Mar 2012
   1. Synonym of microhabitat.
   2. The very small environment in the immediate vicinity of an organism.
      • 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.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