module 5.0 competition

Question 1

what are ecological interactions?

Answer 1

-individuals of different species that coexist in a community interact in different ways
-traits that allow these interactions are adaptations, phenotypic traits resulting from natural selection
-include predation, herbivory, paratism and disease, mutualism, plant pollinator and detrivores

Question 2

what are some terms?

Answer 2

-predation= where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, the prey (ex: wolves, lions, crocodiles)
-herbivory= organisms principally eat autotrophs such as plants and algae (ex: giraffe, pandas), usually do not kill whole plant, just eat parts
-parasitism and disease=one organism lives on or in other organisms and benefits from decreasing its fitness (increases its own) (ex: ticks, tapeworms)

Question 3

what is mutualism?

Answer 3

mutualistic symbiosis, or mutualism
-is an interspecific interaction that benefits both species

Question 4

what are plant-pollinators?

Answer 4

may be important drives of plant population dynamics (an important example of mutualism)
-bees

Question 5

what is detritivory?

Answer 5

important for nutrient cycling and community dynamics
-organisms that break down and feed on dead and decaying organic material

Question 6

what is interspecific competition a driver of?

Answer 6

-one of the most important drivers of natural selection

Question 7

what are the differences in bear paws?

Answer 7

Question 8

where are bears found in north america?

Answer 8

Question 9

competitive interactions have a __________ effect on all competitors?

Answer 9

NEGATIVE
-each competitor’s population would have a higher rate of increase if the other species’ population was (locally) extinct

Question 10

what are the two organisms we use as an example for competition and niche space?

Answer 10

Question 11

what is the volume of P. caudatum alone?

Answer 11

Question 12

what is the volume of P. aurelia alone?

Answer 12

Question 13

what are the two parameciums together?

Answer 13

Question 14

what is a conceptual model of competition?

Answer 14

Question 15

what is the competition and niche space of parameciums description?

Answer 15

-P. aurelia has a higher rate of population growth than P. caudatum
-when raised together in a test tube on a fixed amount of bacterial food, P.caudatum died out
-when P. caudatum (the previous experiment’s loser) was reared with P. bursaria, what happened?

Question 16

what happened when P. bursaria and P. caudatim mixed?

Answer 16

-they coexisted: each species fed on bacteria in different parts of the test tube
-P. bursaria contains symbiotic algae, which release oxygen in photosynthesis. In incompletely mixed cultures, bacteria accumulate on the bottom, creating a zone slightly depleted of oxygen. The protozoan with the algae in effect carries its own oxygen supply into this anoxic habitat and so can use a food source unavailable to the other, competitively superior species. Here, coexistence depends on both the availability of different habitats and differential species’ abilities to utilize those habitats

Question 17

what is the competitive exclusion principle?

Answer 17

states that “complete competitors” cannot exist
-complete competitors are two species that live in the same place and have exactly the same ecological requirements
-if a population of a complete competitor A increase the least bit faster than complete competitor B, then A will eventually outcompete B (b will become extinct)
-when two species substantially overlap in their resource use then fitness costs, over time, will drive one with the smaller advantage to go extinct