Key words Flashcards
Interspecific competition
An interaction between individuals of different species that both require the same limited resources, resulting in a negative effect on one or both species.
Fundamental Niche
The full range of enviornmental conditions and resourses that a species can potentiallz occupz and use if there were no limiting factors such as compeition
Realized Niche
The actual set of environmental conditions and resources that a species occupies and uses as a result of interactions with other species, such as competition.
Competitive Exclusion Principle (Gause’s Principle)
The principle that two species competing for the exact same limited resources cannot coexist indefinately in a stable environment; one will eventually exclude the other.
Niche Differentiation
The process by which competing species evolve to use different resources or the same resources in different ways (e.g, timing, location) to reduce direct competition and allow coexistance
Resource Partitioning
The division of limited resources by coexisting species in a way that reduces interspecific competition. This can occur through differences in the type of resource, the size or form of the resource, or the timing or location of resource use.
Enviornmental Heterogeneity
Spatial or temporal variation in enviornmental conditions and resource avaliability within a habitat or landscape.
Character Displacement
The evolutionary divergence of morphological, behavioral, or physiological traits in two or more sympatric species (species living in the same area) that results from interspecific competition. This divergence redices competition by allowing the species to utilize resources differently.
Ecological Release
The expansion of a species’ realized niche when it is freed from interspecific competition, often observed when a species colonizes a new enviornemtn where its competitors are absent.
Guild
A group of species that exploit the same class of environmental resource in a similar way, regardless of their taxonomic relationship (e.g, insectivorous birds in a forest)
Niche Complementarity
A situation in a community where species that are similar along one niche dimension tend to differ along another, allowing for greater coexistance and species richness
Null Model
A pattern-generating model based on explicit assumptions that are simplified or absent of a particular ecological process (like interspecific competition) It is used as a baseline to test wether observed patterns in ecological data are significantly different from what would be expected by chance or in the abscence of that process.
