Limiting ecological factors
The suitability of a given site for good coffee production is determined by four basic environmental variables: temperature, availability of water, light intensity and soil conditions. All other geographical conditions, such as latitude, altitude or topographical factors such as exposure or aspect, only affect the coffee plants insofar as they interact with the four basic variables. Another climatic element: air movement, does however, play an important role in the way it affects the crops.
The ecology of coffee
This section studies the influence of the environment on the coffee plant, in particular the characteristics of natural factors such as climate and soil and their influence on development. Their effects determine the siting of indigenous species and the economic life of the plants, in other words their potential for profitable production and, by same token, the distribution of the crops throughout the world.