JD L2

Question 1

What is interspecific competition?

Answer 1

Competition that takes place between different species

Question 2

Two principal ways interspecific competition occurs

Answer 2

1. Exploitation competition - species compete indirectly through utilization of a shared resource
2. Interference competition - species compete directly, confrontation is antagonistic, includes mobile and sessile organisms

Question 3

What does the Lotka-Volterra model demonstrate?

Answer 3

The impact of interspecific competitions

Question 4

What is a niche?

Answer 4

The unique set of habitat resources a species requires as well as its effects on an ecological system

Question 5

What is niche partitioning?

Answer 5

The differentiation of niches that enables similar species to coexist

Question 6

What is character displacement?

Answer 6

The tendency for two species to diverge in morphology and thus resource use because of competition

Question 7

What is Gause’s Law?

Answer 7

Also known as the competitive exclusion principle, it contends that to exist in a stable environment two competing species must differ in their ecological niche

Question 8

Fundamental vs. realised niche

Answer 8

Fundamental - physiologically optimal range of conditions where a species can survive
Realised- where the species actually lives

Question 9

Competitive exclusion results in 3 possible outcomes. List them

Answer 9

1. Supremacy
2. Extinction
3. Evasive or adaptive change