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MILLER/SPOOLMAN
LIVING IN THE ENVIRONMENT 17TH

Chapter 5
Biodiversity, Species
Interactions, and Population
Control

Species Interact in Five Major Ways

• Interspecific Competition

• Predation

• Parasitism

• Mutualism

• Commensalism

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Most Species Compete with One

Another for Certain Resources
• For limited resources

• Ecological niche for exploiting resources

• Some niches overlap

Some Species Evolve Ways to Share

Resources
• Resource partitioning
• Using only parts of resource

• Using at different times

• Using in different ways

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Resource Partitioning Among Warblers

Figure 5.2: Sharing the wealth: This diagram illustrates resource partitioning among five species of
insect-eating warblers in the spruce forests of the U.S. state of Maine. Each species minimizes
competition with the others for food by spending at least half its feeding time in a distinct portion
(yellow highlighted areas) of the spruce trees, and by consuming somewhat different insect species.
(After R. H. MacArthur, “Population Ecology of Some Warblers in Northeastern Coniferous Forests,”
Ecology 36 (1958): 533–536.)
Fig. 5-2, p. 106

Specialist Species of Honeycreepers

Figure 5.3: Specialist

species of honeycreepers:
Through natural selection,
different species of
honeycreepers developed
specialized ecological
niches that reduced
competition between
these species. Each
species has evolved a
specialized beak to take
advantage of certain
types of food resources.

Fig. 5-3, p. 107

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Most Consumer Species Feed on Live

Organisms of Other Species
• Prey may avoid capture by
1. Run, swim, fly
2. Protection: shells, bark, thorns
3. Camouflage
4. Chemical warfare
5. Warning coloration
6. Mimicry
7. Deceptive looks
8. Deceptive behavior

camouflage

(a) Span worm

Fig. 5-5a, p. 109

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camouflage

(b) Wandering leaf insect

Fig. 5-5b, p. 109

chemical
warfare

(c) Bombardier beetle

Fig. 5-5c, p. 109

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chemical
warfare

(d) Foul-tasting monarch butterfly

Fig. 5-5d, p. 109

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warning
coloration

(e) Poison dart frog

Fig. 5-5e, p. 109

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warning
coloration

(f) Viceroy butterfly mimics monarch

butterfly
Fig. 5-5f, p. 109

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mimicry

(g) Hind wings of Io moth resemble

eyes of a much larger animal.

Fig. 5-5g, p. 109

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mimicry

(h) When touched, snake

caterpillar changes shape to look
like head of snake.
Fig. 5-5h, p. 109

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Predator and Prey Interactions Can

Drive Each Other’s Evolution
• Intense natural selection pressures between
predator and prey populations

• Coevolution
• Interact over a long period of time
• Bats and moths: echolocation of bats and sensitive
hearing of moths

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Coevolution: A Langohrfledermaus
Bat Hunting a Moth

Fig. 5-6, p. 110

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Some Species Feed off Other Species

by Living on or in Them
• Parasitism

• Parasite is usually much smaller than the host

• Parasite rarely kills the host

• Parasite-host interaction may lead to coevolution

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Parasitism: Trout with Blood-Sucking Sea Lamprey

Fig. 5-7, p. 110

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In Some Interactions, Both Species

Benefit
• Mutualism

• Nutrition and protection relationship

• Gut inhabitant mutualism

• Not cooperation: it’s mutual exploitation

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Mutualism: Hummingbird and Flower

Figure 5.8:
Mutualism: This
hummingbird
benefits by feeding
on nectar in this
flower, and it
benefits the flower
by pollinating it.

Fig. 5-8, p. 110

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Mutualism: Oxpeckers Clean Rhinoceros; Anemones

Protect and Feed Clownfish

Figure 5.9: Examples of mutualism: (a) Oxpeckers (or tickbirds) feed on parasitic ticks
that infest large, thick-skinned animals such as the endangered black rhinoceros. (b) A
clownfish gains protection and food by living among deadly, stinging sea anemones and
helps to protect the anemones from some of their predators.
Fig. 5-9, p. 111

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In Some Interactions, One Species Benefits

and the Other Is Not Harmed
• Commensalism

• Epiphytes

• Birds nesting in trees

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5-2 What Limits the Growth of

Populations?
• Concept 5-2 No population can continue to grow
indefinitely because of limitations on resources and
because of competition among species for those
resources.

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Most Populations Live Together in

Clumps or Patches
• Population: group of interbreeding individuals of the
same species
• Population distribution
1. Clumping
2. Uniform dispersion
3. Random dispersion

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Most Populations Live Together in

Clumps or Patches
• Why clumping?
1. Species tend to cluster
where resources are
available
2. Groups have a better
chance of finding
clumped resources
3. Protects some animals
from predators
4. Packs allow some to get
prey

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Populations Can Grow, Shrink, or

Remain Stable
• Population size governed by • Age structure
• Births • Pre-reproductive
• Deaths age
• Immigration • Reproductive age
• Emigration • Post-reproductive
age

Population change =
(births + immigration) – (deaths + emigration)

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Some Factors Can Limit Population

Size
• Range of tolerance
• Variations in physical and chemical environment
• Limiting factor principle
• Too much or too little of any physical or chemical factor
can limit or prevent growth of a population, even if all
other factors are at or near the optimal range of tolerance
• Precipitation
• Nutrients
• Sunlight, etc
• Exposure to too many competitors, predators or infectious
diseases
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Trout Tolerance of Temperature

Figure 5.13: This diagram illustrates the range of tolerance for a population of organisms, such as trout, to
a physical environmental factor—in this case, water temperature. Range of tolerance restrictions prevent
particular species from taking over an ecosystem by keeping their population size in check. Question: For
humans, what is an example of a range of tolerance for a physical environmental factor?
Fig. 5-13, p. 113

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No Population Can Grow Indefinitely:

J-Curves and S-Curves
• Environmental • Exponential growth
resistance • Starts slowly, then
• All factors that act to accelerates to carrying
limit the growth of a capacity when meets
population environmental
resistance

• Carrying capacity (K) • Logistic growth

• Maximum population a • Decreased population
given habitat can sustain growth rate as
population size reaches
carrying capacity

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No Population Can Grow Indefinitely:

J-Curves and S-Curves

• When a Population Exceeds Its Habitat’s Carrying

Capacity, Its Population Can Crash

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Exponential Growth, Overshoot, and

Population Crash of a Reindeer
Figure 5.17: This graph tracks
the exponential growth,
overshoot, and population
crash of reindeer introduced
onto the small Bering Sea
island of St. Paul. When 26
reindeer (24 of them female)
were introduced in 1910,
lichens, mosses, and other
food sources were plentiful. By
1935, the herd size had soared
to 2,000, overshooting the
island’s carrying capacity. This
led to a population crash,
when the herd size plummeted
to only 8 reindeer by 1950.
Question: Why do you think
the sizes of some populations
level off while others such as
the reindeer in this example
exceed their carrying
capacities and crash?

Fig. 5-17, p. 116

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Species Have Different Reproductive

Patterns
MAJORITY MINORITY
• Many, usually small, • Reproduce later in life
offspring • Small number of
• Little or no parental care offspring with long life
• Massive deaths of spans
offspring • Young offspring grow
• Insects, bacteria, algae inside mother
• Long time to maturity
• Protected by parents,
and potentially groups
• Humans
• Elephants

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Under Some Circumstances Population

Density Affects Population Size
•DENSITY DEPENDENT population
Density-dependent DENSITY INDEPENDENT
controls
FACTORS FACTORS
• Predation
• Parasitism
• Infectious disease
• Competition for resources

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Population Cycles for the Snowshoe Hare and

Canada Lynx

Figure 5.18: This graph represents the population cycles for the snowshoe hare and the Canadian lynx.
At one time, scientists believed these curves provided evidence that these predator and prey
populations regulated one another. More recent research suggests that the periodic swings in the hare
population are caused by a combination of top-down population control—through predation by lynx
and other predators—and bottom-up population control, in which changes in the availability of the food
supply for hares help to determine their population size, which in turn helps to determine the lynx
population size. (Data from D. A. MacLulich)
Fig. 5-18, p. 118

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Humans Are Not Exempt from

Nature’s Population Controls
BUBONIC PLAGUE:
• 1st Outbreak – “Plague of Justinian” 542 AD, Eastern
Roman Empire
• Resulted in an estimated 25-50 million deaths over 2
centuries
• 2nd Outbreak – “The Black Death” ~1347-early 1400’s
• Resulted in the death of nearly a third of the human
population of Europe and Asia
• Last major outbreak in Europe 1813-1814

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• 3rd Outbreak:
• 1855-1925
• Like the other 2 outbreaks, the plague originated in
(or near) China, moved to India, the Hawaiian Islands
and Australia
• Resulted in an estimated 14 million deaths

• The WHO declared the pandemic active until 1959

when worldwide casualties dropped to 200 per year

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MALARIA:
• The parasite responsible for malaria, P. falciparum, has been in
existence for 50,000–100,000 years however, the population size
of the parasite did not increase until about 10,000 years ago,
concurrently with advances in agriculture
• WHO estimates that in 2015 there were 214 million new cases of
malaria worldwide, resulting in 438,000 deaths.
• Malaria has been so pervasive that it has driven the process of
natural selection in multiple populations of Homo sapiens sapiens
to include the allele for Sickle Cell Trait

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POTATO BLIGHT:
• Caused the Irish Potato Famine, 1845-1849
• Resulted in the death of ~1 million and the emigration
of an estimated 2-3 million, mostly to the New World
H1N1:
• Spanish Flu Pandemic: 1918 (came in 2 waves/the 2nd
deadlier than the 1st)
• Swine Flu Pandemic: 2009-10
• The Americas hardest hit; current data suggest upwards of
405,000 died worldwide, either directly or from
complications

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HIV/AIDS:
1st case described in a diagnosis from 1959
First US case appears to have been in 1969
First clinical case in US in 1971
Originally people believed that only certain people were at risk for
AIDS. Media named them the “four-H club:”
• hemophiliacs, who received contaminated blood transfusions
• homosexual men, who reported higher incidences of the disease
• heroin users, and people who used drugs via injection
• Haitian origin, many cases of AIDS were reported in Haiti

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• By 1978 it was estimated to be in ~5% of the US

homosexual male population
• President Ronald Regan says the word “AIDS” in
public for the first time in September 1985;
cumulative known deaths in the US…. 16,301
• It is estimated that by 1990, in the US alone,
600-900 thousand people were infected with HIV

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How Do Communities and Ecosystems

Respond to Changing Environmental
Conditions?
• Concept 5-3 The structure and species composition
of communities and ecosystems change in response
to changing environmental conditions through a
process called ecological succession. This can be
either primary or secondary succession

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Some Ecosystems Start from Scratch:

Primary Succession
• No soil in a terrestrial system

• No bottom sediment in an aquatic system

• Takes hundreds to thousands of years

• Need to build up soils/sediments to provide

necessary nutrients

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Primary Ecological Succession

Figure 5.19: Primary ecological succession: Over almost a thousand years, these plant communities
developed, starting on bare rock exposed by a retreating glacier on Isle Royal, Michigan (USA) in northern
Lake Superior. The details of this process vary from one site to another. Question: What are two ways in
which lichens, mosses, and plants might get started growing on bare rock?
Fig. 5-19, p. 119

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Some Ecosystems Do Not Have to Start from

Scratch: Secondary Succession
• Some soil remains in a terrestrial system

• Some bottom sediment remains in an aquatic system

• Ecosystem has been

• Disturbed
• Removed
• Destroyed

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Natural Ecological Restoration of Disturbed Land

Figure 5.20: Natural ecological restoration of disturbed land: This diagram shows the undisturbed secondary ecological succession of plant
communities on an abandoned farm field in the U.S. state of North Carolina. It took 150–200 years after the farmland was abandoned for the
area to become covered with a mature oak and hickory forest. A new disturbance such as deforestation or fire would create conditions favoring
pioneer species such as annual weeds. In the absence of new disturbances, secondary succession would recur over time, but not necessarily in
the same sequence shown here. See an animation based on this figure at CengageNOW. Questions: Do you think the annual weeds (left) would
continue to thrive in the mature forest (right)? Why or why not?
Fig. 5-20, p. 120

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Secondary Ecological Succession in Yellowstone Following

the 1998 Fire

Figure 5.21: These young lodgepole pines growing around standing dead trees after a
1998 forest fire in Yellowstone National Park are an example of secondary ecological
succession.
Fig. 5-21, p. 120

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Some Ecosystems Do Not Have to Start from

Scratch: Secondary Succession
• Primary and secondary succession
• Tend to increase biodiversity
• Increase species richness and interactions among species

• Primary and secondary succession can be interrupted by

• Fires
• Hurricanes
• Clear-cutting of forests
• Plowing of grasslands
• Invasion by nonnative species

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Succession Doesn’t Follow a

Predictable Path
• Traditional view
• Balance of nature and a climax community

• Current view
• Ever-changing mosaic of patches of vegetation
• Mature late-successional ecosystems
• State of continual disturbance and change

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Living Systems Are Sustained through

Constant Change
• Inertia, persistence
• Ability of a living system to survive moderate
disturbances

• Resilience
• Ability of a living system to be restored through
secondary succession after a moderate disturbance

• Some systems have one property, but not the other:

tropical rainforests

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