Chapter 54 Vocabulary Flashcards
Interspecific interactions
Some key relationships in the life of an organism are it’s interactions with individuals of other species in the community. Including competition, predation, herbivory, symbiosis, and facilitation
Community
A group of populations of different species living close enough to interact
Interspecific competition
A -/- interaction that occurs when individuals of different species compete for a resource that limits their growth and survival
Competitive exclusion
Even a slight reproductive advantage will eventually lead to local elimination of the inferior competitor
Ecological niche
The sum of a species’ use of the biotic and abiotic resources in its environment
Resource partitioning
The differentiation of niches that enables similar species to coexist in a community
Fundamental niche
The niche potentially occupied by that species
Realized niche
The portion of its fundamental niche that a species actually occupies in a particular environment
Allopatric
Geographically separate
Sympatric
Geographically overlapping
Character displacement
The tendency for characteristics to diverge more in sympatric then in allopatric populations of two species
Predation
A +/- interaction between species in which one species, the predator, kills and eats the other, the prey
Cryptic coloration
Camouflage
Aposematic coloration
Warning coloration, such as that of the poison dart frog
Bayesian mimicry
A palatable or harmless species mimics and unpalatable or harmful one
Mullerian mimicry
Two or more unpalatable species, such as the cuckoo bee and yellow jacket, resemble each other. Presumably, the more unpalatable prey they are, the more quickly predators learn to avoid prey with a particular appearance
Herbivory
A +/- interaction in which an organism eats part of a plant or alga
Symbiosis
When individuals of two or more species live in direct and intimate contact with one another
Parasitism
A +/- symbiotic interaction in which one organism, the parasite, derives its nourishment from another organism, its host
Parasite
Derives its nourishment from another organism, harming it in the process
Host
Harmed in the process of parasitism
Endoparasites
Parasites that live within the body of their host, such as tapeworms
Ectoparasites
Parasites that feed on external surfaces of a host, such as ticks and lice
Mutualism
And interspecific interactions that benefits both species +/+