54 Community Ecology Flashcards
What does ‘interspecific interactions’ refer to?
How species of a community affect each other.
What does symbiosis refer to?
It can refer to two species which live together beneficially.
More broadly it refers to two species with live in direct and intimate contact with each other.
Note that competition etc. isn’t symbiosis as the predator and prey do not live together, unlike in parasitism
What are the main forms of ‘interspecific interaction?
Competition, Predation, Herbivory, Parasitism, Mutualism, Communalism and Faciliation
What type of interaction is competition?
-/-
What type of interaction is predation?
+/-
What type of interaction is herbivory?
+/-
What type of interaction is parasitism?
+/-
What type of interaction is mutualism?
+/+
What type of interaction is commensalism?
+/0
What type of interaction is facilitation?
+/+ or +/0
What is competition?
When two organisms of the same or different species compete for a limited resource.
What can competition be divided into?
‘Interspecific competition’ between organisms of the same species and ‘intraspecific competition’ between organisms of different species.
What are some examples of resources fought over in competition?
Food, water, shelter and light (plants)
In ‘intraspecific competion’ mates can also be fought over.
What does ‘niche’ refer to?
The sum of a species’ use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment
What fundamental concepts does competition lead to?
‘competitive exclusion’, ‘resource partitioning’ and ‘character displacement’
What is ‘competitive exclusion’?
If two species with a similar niche compete it is possible that one species outcompetes the other and thus removes it from that niche.
What is ‘resource partitioning’?
If two species inhabit similar niches they may undergo ‘resource partitioning’ in which one species occupies one part of that niche and the other occupies a different area of that niche.
What is an example of ‘resource partitioning’?
If two snakes occupy a similar niche i.e. eating mice in the same niche.
In this case ‘resource partitioning’ could occur in that one species eats mice in the bushes whereas the other species eats mice in the trees.
‘Resource partitioning’ can also be temporal for example inesct-eating birds could come out at day and insect-eating bats might come out at night.
What is ‘character displacement’?
If two sympatric (overlapping geographically) species compete for the same niche they may undergo ‘character displacement’.
This leads to the similar species gaining different features.
What drives ‘character displacement’?
Natural selection as it is not beneficial to the species to be competing.
What is an example of character displacement?
If two bird species moved to the same island they might undergo ‘character displacement’ so that their beaks differ.
The species that develops a shorter beak would eat small seed whereas the species with the long beak would eat larger seeds.
In this way the competition has been reduced.
What is predation?
An interspecific relation in which one species (the ‘predator’) kills its ‘prey’ for food.
What are some typical adaptions of predators?
Acute senses to find their prey.
Many have adaptations such as claws, teeth, fangs, stingers, or poison that help them catch and kill their food.
Often speed so that they can catch their prey
What are some typical adaptions prey?
Many are fast so that they can escape. They may have claws and horns etc. to defend them self.
Many exploit the various forms of ‘defensive coloration’