Karin Hårding - Interspecific competition

Question 1

Multi-species models

Answer 1

Interspecific competition, predation, food chains.

Question 2

Rodent cycles

Answer 2

Mass occur, then they drop. Predators have adapted to this to be able to survive to the next peak. Rodent cycles drive the ecosystem of predators and prey.
Things that can lead to collapse is overgrazing, stress from predators, disease, and so on. Not fully understood.

Question 3

Coupled oscillation in predator and prey

Answer 3

For example lynx and hare. The hare population rise, therefore the lynx population rise, they hunt more hares, the hares decline, so does the lynx, and so on.

Question 4

Gauses competitive exclusion principle

Answer 4

Two species with identical niches cannot coexist indefinetily.

Question 5

Basic theory of interspecific competition

Answer 5

Two species use the same limited resource, which has a negative effect on one or both species.

Question 6

Lotka Volterra model

Answer 6

They asked what makes a good competitior, and under what conditions a species can go extinct. Derived from a continuous model of density dependent population growth.
Check equations in ppt.
There will be a stable equillibrium between the two equations. Could be one species going extinct, or a point where they coexist.

Question 7

Four possible outcomes of interspecific competition depending on isoclines

Answer 7

Stable coexistence
A outcompetes B
B outcompetes A
Unstable equilibrium; either species could outcompete the other depending on the starting population size.