The specialties arrayed along this spectrum are placed only approximately. Different practitioners may choose to hop-scotch them around by one or two positions. The ordination along a biotic-abiotic axis is only one possible dimension of ecology. Two other ordination axes are level of organization and scale. The disciplines within ecology can also be ordinated on the basis of these two axes.
Landscape ecology provides an example of different ordinations of specialties in ecology.
Landscape ecology could be defined by its focus on heterogeneity and the functional significance of interactions of patches. This would be a definition of the specialty by means of its approach or question. An ordination would then be based on scales to which the approach applied. An ordination of ecology might also be conducted within the plane defined by focus on fluxes and focus on entities. This ordination points to the two great currencies that appear within ecology.