12: Competition

Question 1

What is a niche?

Answer 1

a species functional role in an ecosystem, all the physical, chemical, and biological conditions in which it lives and reproduces in an ecosystem
- what it eats
- where it nests
- when does it reproduce

Question 2

What is a habitat?

Answer 2

place where a population typically lives

Question 3

What is a paramecium?

Answer 3

a unicellular organism

Question 4

What is an independent variable?

Answer 4

one thing you intend to change (manipulate) in an experiment
- X-axis on the graph (bottom)

Question 5

What is a dependent variable?

Answer 5

variable that changes as a result of changes in the independent variable; what we do not know and are testing to find out
- y-axis (vertical side)

Question 6

What does the y-axis represent?

Answer 6

continuous numerical categories

Question 7

What is the principle of competitive exclusion?

Answer 7

2 species will not occupy the same niche, live in the same habitat, and compete for the same resources for very long
- either one becomes extinct or over the course of evolutionary time or the species adapt to exploit different resources

Question 8

What is resource partitioning?

Answer 8

over evolutionary time, species divide up scarce resource and reduce competition (adaptation)

Question 9

What is an example of resource partitioning?

Answer 9

hawks that feed in the day and owls that feed at night (both eat the same prey)

Question 10

What is fitness?

Answer 10

measure of reproductive success; ability of an individual to survive and produce fertile offspring