Community Ecology Flashcards
Define Community
Populations of species interacting with each other
Communities differ in what 2 things?
Species richness and Relative abundance
Define a habitat
The physical place where you can find species interacting with each other
Define Competition and how do they occur?
Another form of interaction between species. They occur when the niches of two species interlace.
Define Competitive Exclusion Principle.
When two species that compete for the exact same resources cannot stably coexist
Define Resource partitioning.
When species divide a niche to avoid competition for resource.
Define fundamental niche VS. realized niche
Fundamental niche is the entire possible niche that a species may occupy (a tree)
Realized niche is the portion of that niche that a species may occupy (a part of a tree)
Resource Partitioning can lead to what?
Speciation
Speciation is driven by what 2 things?
Competition and Resource partitioning.
What are the different trophic levels?
Producers
Herbivores (Primary Consumers)
Carnivores (Secondary Consumers)
Carnivores (Tertiary Consumers)
Trophic levels make up what we call the ___ ___
Food chain/web
Energetic Hypothesis
Suggests that the length of a food chain is limited by the inefficiency of energy transfer along the chain
Dynamic Stability Hypothesis
The more levels you have, the more unstable the food web/chain are going to be
What is the 10% rule?
About 10% only makes it through the trophic level.
Define Keystone species.
A species on which other species in an ecosystem largely depend on, such that if it were removed the ecosystem would change drastically
