Interspecific Interactions And The Ecology Of Communities: Chapter 56

Question 1

Niche

Answer 1

The total of all the ways an organism uses the resources of it’s environment.

Includes:
Space utilization
Food consumption 
Temperature range 
Appropriate conditions for mating
Requirements for moisture and more

Question 2

Inter spacial conditions

Answer 2

Occurs when two different species attempt to use the same resource and there is not enough resources to satisfy both

Question 3

Ecotone

Answer 3

Transition zones where the environment changed abruptly

Question 4

Fundamental niche

Answer 4

The entire niche that a species is capable of using, based on physiological tolerance limits and resource needs (“potential”)

Question 5

Realized niche

Answer 5

Actual set of environmental conditions, presence or absence of other species, in which the species can establish a stable population

Question 6

What is the principle of competitive exclusion?

Answer 6

If two species are competing for a limited resource, the species that uses the resource or efficiently will eventually eliminate the other locally

Question 7

Primary succession

Answer 7

Succession that occurs in a bare, lifeless substrate. Organisms move into an area and change its nature (ie: post volcanic eruption)

Question 8

Secondary succession

Answer 8

Occurs in areas where an existing community has been disturbed but organisms and/or organic matter still remains.
(After a forest fire there would still be bacteria, fungi, and nutrients and plant seeds in the soul even if all the organisms were killed.)