Community Ecology and Structure Flashcards
Ecology
Studying relationships between living organisms (biotic) and their physical surroundings (abiotic)
Population
A group of species living closely together at the same time.
Community Approach
All populations come together in one place, including fungi, animals, protists, ect
Ecosystem
The community along with the physical, non-living enviornment.
Biosphere
Sum of all ecosystems
Biome
A group of multiple ecosystems that can be classified by having different climates and dominate plants (think minecraft lol)
How is community approach organized?
- Physical characteristics (environment)
- Biological characteristics (emphasizing dominate species)
What is the community structure?
the types and numbers of species (or subsets of species) in the present
What are community dynamics
how communities change over time
Taxonomic affinity
all bird species in a community
What is a guild
A group of species that use the same resources
Functional Group
a group of species that function in similar ways, but do not always use the same resources
What are the three types of species?
- Foundational
- Keystone
- Dominate
What is a foundation species?
a species that can cause physical or chemical changes within an environment (ex :beavers building a dam)
What is a keystone species?
A species that can control distribution or abundance of other species
What is a dominate species?
most abundant and out competes other species.
How do you measure community structure?
- Species Richness: The NUMBER of different species in a community
- Species Evenness: RELATIVE ABUNDANCE compared with one another
- Species Diversity: COMBINES SPECIES RICHNESS AND SPECIES EVENESS and measures community complexity
What is lower species evenness?
Not much diversity
What is higher species evenness?
A lot of diversity
How do you measure species diversity?
By combining species richness with species evenness. The most common method is called the SHANNON-WEINER index.
Species accumulation curve
Helps determine whether most or enough of a species has been observed.
What influences community structure?
- Climate patterns (Alter, Shift, Disrupt, Destabilize, Sporadic, MISMATCHES)
- Geography of the communities location (ex: isolated, mainland, physical stress, etc)
- Heterogeneity (patchiness of the communities location.
- Frequency of disturbances or disruptive events (fires, storms, landslides)
- Interactions between organisms (predation, competition, symbiosis, etc).
What is climate patterns?
- Temporal mismatches under warming climate
- Spatial Mismatches under a warming climate
- Body size mismatches under a warming climate
