BIOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES & SPECIES INTERACTION

POWERPOINT
Levels of Complexity
Individuals
o Natural selection operates at the level of the individual because it is the individual that must survive and reproduce.
Population
o All individuals that belong to the same species and live in a given area at a particular time
o Evolution occurs at this level
o Important factors cause numbers to increase or decrease
o Boundaries of population rarely clear; may be set arbitrarily by scientists
Community
o All of the populations of organisms within a given area
o May be defined by the state or federal agency responsible for managing it
o How species interact with one another
o Many named for visually dominate species
Biomes
o Terrestrial communities in different parts of world experience similar patterns of temperature and precipitation;
contain plants with similar growth forms
o Ex. Temperate seasonal forests w/ deciduous trees (species varies in community)
Ecosystem
o Consists of all of the biotic and abiotic components in a particular location
o Ecologists study flows of energy and matter (ex nutrients cycling)
Biosphere
o Incorporates all of Earths ecosystems
o Scientists interested in the movement of air, water, and heat around the globe
Abiotic Environmental Factors
Tolerance Limits min & max levels where a species cannot survive or reproduce
Critical Factors an abiotic factor that determines distribution of a species more than any other
Range of Tolerance the limit to the abiotic conditions they can tolerate as all species have an optimal environment
Fundamental Niche ideal conditions for a species
Every organism has limits to environmental conditions it can endure
If possible to graph all factors that affect a species at once; result is multidimensional space describing ecological niche available
to that species
Environmental Indicators species requirements and tolerances can be used as indicators
o Lichens and eastern white pine are sensitive to sulfur dioxide and acid rain; absence means air pollution
o Presence or absence of trout can be an indicator of water quality
Evolution shapes ecological niches and determines species distributions
Species Interaction
Realized Niche range of abiotic and biotic conditions where a species lives; determines the species distribution
Niche Generalist species lives under a wide range of conditions
Niche Specialist species lives only in specific habitats.
Competition
Competition - the struggle of individuals to obtain a limiting resource .
o Interspecific
o Intraspecific
Presence of a species in an area is influenced by fundamental niche; must be able to disperse to that area
o Ex. Kangaroos cant cross oceans to North America
Interactions with other species determining a species distribution
o Competition, predation, mutualism, and commensalism
Scienceofcommunityecologyisstudyoftheseinteractionswhichdeterminethesurvivalofaspeciesinahabitat
GeorgiiGause
o StudiedhowdifferentParameciumspeciesaffectedeachotherspopulationgrowth
o TwospeciesP.caudatumandP.aureliathriveapartbutAureliabeatstheothertogether

CompetitiveExclusionPrincipletwospeciescompetingforthesamelimitingresourcecannotcoexist

Resource Partitioning
ResourcePartitioningtwospeciesdividearesourcebasedondifferencesinthespeciesbehaviorormorphology
Whencompetitionreducesabilityofindividualstosurviveandreproduce,naturalselectionfavorindividualsthatoverlapless
withotherspeciesintheresourcestheyuse
Reducestheamountofcompetitionbetweenthetwospecies
TemporalResourcePartitioningutilizingthesameresourcebutatdifferenttimes
SpatialResourcePartitioningreducecompetitionbyusingdifferenthabitats
MorphologicalResourcePartitioningevolutionofdifferencesinbodysizeorshape
Species Interaction
Predation the use of one species as a resource by another species
True predators kill their prey
Herbivores consume plants as prey
Parasites live on or in the organism they consume
o Pathogens parasites that cause disease in their host
Parasitoids lay eggs inside other organisms
o Parasitoid larvae slowly consume the host from the inside out
Predators regulate prey populations
Defenses: Behavioral, morphological, chemical, or mimic another species defense
o Behavioral: hiding, reduced movement
o Morphological: camouflage, spines
o Chemical: emit chemicals that are toxic or distasteful to their predators
o Mimicking: mimicking toxic species
Mutualism a type of interspecific interaction where both species benefit
Commensalism a type of relationship where one species benefits but the other is not harmed or helped
Symbiotic Relationship relationship of two species that live in close association with each other
Keystone Species
Keystone species species that plays a role in its community that is far more important than its relative abundance might suggest
o Affect the abundance and distribution of species in communities
o Mostly low numbers
o Can be predators, sources of food, mutualistic species, or providers of some other essential service
Most of time, a given species has effect on small number of other species, but not on entire community
The extinction of a single species usually does not affect the long-term stability of a community or ecosystem; other species can
replace dead
Ecosystem Engineers a keystone species may create or maintain habitat for other species
Community Properties
Productivity
Community Diversity
o Species Richness - number of species in a given area; gives an approximate sense of the biodiversity of a place
o Species Evenness tells us if an ecosystem is numerically dominated by one species or if all of its species have
similar abundances; gives relative proportions of individuals
Less diversity if less evenness
Primary Succession
Primary Succession - occurs on surfaces that are initially devoid of soil
o Algae, lichens, and mosses colonize then soil from rocks and dead bodies
o New species colonize the area and outcompete the mid-successional species.
Secondary Succession
Secondary Succession - occurs in areas that have been disturbed but have not lost their soil.
Follows natural disaster, which removes vegetation but leaves the soil mostly intact.
Can be small or large

Climax Stage ending of succession

Aquatic Succession
Disturbances also create opportunities for succession in aquatic environments

Basically bodies of water dry up, goes away