COMMUNITY

Ecosphere
Biome
Landscape
Ecosystem
Community
Population

Organism

Organ system

Organ

Tissue

Cell
Definition:
“An assemblage of all organisms occurring together in an area
at a given time”

A community is a functional unit because organisms in a

community do not just co-occur, but the are linked through biotic
interactions.

Therefore, community may also be defined as:

“A functional unit of mutually interacting populations of animals,
plants, and microorganisms in a given area at a given time”
 Biotic interactions in community

“Positive or negative interactions between species

in a community that favour or inhibit the growth
and abundance of constituent populations and
shape the community composition and structure”
https://www.easybiologyclass.com/biological-interactions-positive-negative-interactions-ecosystem-ppt/

Niche:
http://www.zo.utexas.edu/courses/bio373/chapters/Chapter13/Chapter13.html
These interactions are denoted by positive (+) or
negative (-) signs or ‘0’.

 Species assigned a positive (+) sign experience

advantage or it is benefitted.

 Species assigned a negative (-) sign experience

inhibition or decline

 Species assigned ‘0’ is neither benefitted nor

harmed.
 NINE TYPES OF INTERACTIONS
+ - 0
S +, + +, - +, 0
p
+ Proto-cooperation
Mutualism
Predation,
herbivory
Commensalism

e
c - -, + -,-
Competition
-, 0
Ammensalism
Parasitism,
i Allelopathy
e
0 0, + 0, - 0, 0
s Neutralism

S p e c i e s B
POSITIVE –POSITIVE INTERACTIONS:
 Commensalism
 Protocooperation
 Mutualism
POSITIVE/NEGATIVE INTERACTIONS
 Amensalism
 Predation/herbivory
 Parasitism/allelopathy
NEGATIVE/NEGATIVE INTERATIONS
 Competition
A community may of any size and durability:
 Epiphytes growing on tree branches constitute a community.
 Mosses growing on boulders along with associated fauna and
other plants
 A vast sal or teak forest is also a community
 Community of ephemerals in a desert is short-lives while the
community of perennial xerophytes in the same habitat is long-lived.
Communities are usually named after dominant species

Teak Sal Dichanthium

 Two contrasting views of the community

Community is defined as groups of species that occupy a given

area, interacting with each other directly or indirectly.

How important are these interacts? Two views

Organismal (or discrete or holistic) concept: Clements (1916)

Individualistic (or continuum) concept: Gleason (1926)
Organismic (Holistic) concept:
Distribution of species is discrete (associations)
Association: a type of community with
1. relative consistent species evolved together;
2. a uniform general appearance;
3. a distribution that is characteristics of a particular habitats such as
hilltop or valley

Transitional zones between communities are narrow, with few

species in common (Ecotone)
Suggest a common evolutional history and similar foundational
response and tolerances for component species
Mutualism and coevolution play important roles in the species that
make up association.
Individualistic (or continuum) concept:

Relationship among co-existing species is the result of similarities

in their requirements and tolerances, not the result of strong
interactions or common evolutionary history.

Gradual change in species abundance along environmental

gradient (no associations)
Transitions are gradual and difficult to detect.
Two views of
community
Organismic and
individualistic views

Holistic (discrete) or
continuum
Ecotones

Closed or open
communities
Emergent properties of community:
“properties at various levels of organization that can not be derived from
lower-level systems studied in isolation”
An ecological community has following five emergent properties:
1. Species diversity: Number of species and their abundance values.
2. Growth form and structure:
 Trees, shrubs, herbs, climbers.
 Trees: Broad-leaved, needle leaved, evergreen, deciduous etc.
 Vertical (stratification) or horizontal (zonation) arrangement of
these growth forms determines the community structure.
3. Dominance: All species in a community are not equally important. Only
few species dominate the community and exert a major controlling
influence on the community and are known as ‘dominants’.
4. Succession: Each community develops as a result of directional changes
in it over time until it has reached the climax stage.
5. Trophic structure (Self-sufficiency): An optimally functioning community
has a perfect balance of autotrophs, heterotrophs, and decomposers which
make it self sufficient.
Characters/parameters used to study the structure of community:
Community characteristics may be divided into two groups and two
subgroups as follows:
1. Analytical characters: These characters are derived from primary data
and again divided into two sub-categories
A. Quantitative: Expressed in quantitative terms.
B. Qualitative: Expressed in qualitative way.
2. Synthetic characters: Computed from analytical characters.
 Analytical Characters
A. Quantitative:
1. Frequency: The number of sampling units, usually expressed as
percent of the sample size, in which a given species occurs.
Number of sampling units in which the species occurred
% Frequency =
Total number of sampling units (sample size)

2. Density: It represents the numerical strength of a species in whole

habitat. The mean number of the individuals of a species per sampling unit
is its density.
Total number of individuals of a species in all sampling units
Density =
Total number of sampling units (sample size)
 Analytical Characters
A. Quantitative:
3. Abundance: This is the numerical strength of a species in parts of
habitat where it actually occurs
Total number of individuals of a species in all sampling units
Abundance =
Total number of sampling units in which the species actually occurred

Sample size = 12 5 8
Quadrats of occurrence = 5
Total individuals in sample = 50
10 15 12
%Frequency =
Density =
Abundance =
Frequency classes, law of frequency, and normal frequency diagram

A = 53
B = 14 >
C=9 A > B > C = D < E
D=8 <
E = 16
4. Cover and basal area:
Actual influence a plant species exerts on a
community depends on its growth form (herb,
shrub, tree etc.).

Several individual of a small herb may have

much smaller influence than a single individual
of a large tree.
Therefore, quantitative values of density,
%frequency and abundance etc. must be
supplemented with cover and basal area.
Cover or herbage cover:
The area of ground occupied by the above ground parts of the plant as
viewed from the top.
Basal area:
Ground actually penetrated by the stem or trunk.
Cover classes
Based on their cover values, the species of a community are assigned
to following SIX groups/cover classes:
Group I > 5%
Group II 5-25%
Group III 25-50%
Group IV 50-75%
Group V 75-95%
Group VI 95-100%
B. Qualitative
1. Physiognomy:
Literally physiognomy means “the general appearance, shape and features
of a person’s face”
In community ecology physiognomy refers to the appearance of vegetation
on the basis of the growth form of dominant species.
For example vegetation dominated by trees and shrubs is a forest.
 1
2. Phenology 1 = germination
6 2
2 = vegetative growth
3 = flowering
Calendar of events in the life 4 = fruit formation
history of plant species. 5 3 5 = seed maturation
Phenology of a species is depicted 6 = death
4
by a phenogram

1
1
2 6

5 3

4
Draw phenogram from following data:
Date of data collection 18/02/2019
Veronica anagallis-aquatica: Vegetative growth, flowering.
Anagallis arvensis: Flowering, fruit formation, seed maturation.
Cirsium arvense: Flowering, fruit formation.
Sonchus oleraceus: Flowering, fruit formation, seed maturation..
Ipomoea nil: Dead plants
Echinops echinatus: Vegetative growth.
Melilotus indica: seed maturation
3. Stratification:
Arrangement of different species in a community in vertical layers.

Depends on diversity of physiognomy.

 II

II
III

IV
V
4. Abundance:
 Related to density and %frequency.
 It can not be expressed generally in quantitative terms.
 Divided into five arbitrary groups:
a. Very rare
b. Rare
c. Common
d. Frequent
e. Very much frequent.
5. Sociability:
Expresses the relation (proximity or distance) of individuals to each other.
Individuals of a species show three major patterns of spatial distribution:
1. Clustered/clumped/contagious: Plants grow in groups or clumps. Presence
of one individual leads to the occurrence of several other. This is the most
common distribution pattern of plants.

Clustered distribution may be due to (a) clustering of individuals around their

parents because of vegetative reproduction or poor seed dispersal, and (b)
patchy distribution of disseminules, patchy germination, or patchy survival
due to variation in microenvironment.
2. Random distribution: Distribution of each individual is independent of
the presence of other individual (s) or the location of each individual is
is determined by factors independent of those determining the distribution
other individuals. This is rather uncommon type of distribution pattern.

3. Regular distribution: Individuals are regularly spaced like the trees in an

orchard, perhaps showing repulsion from one another. This distribution
pattern is rare.

Regular pattern may result from (a) competitive elimination, (b) production
of allelopathic compounds which do not allow other individuals of same
species to establish in close vicinity, and (c) thinning of seedlings by such
factors as damping off fungi.
Bambusa sp. (Bamboo) Taraxacum officinale (Dandelion) Larrea tridentata (Creosote bush)
Clumped distribution Random distribution Regular distribution
Sociability groups/classes:
Braun-Blanquet (1932) used following five classes:
S1 = Plants grow singly
S2 = A group of 4-6 individuals at one place
S3 = Many smaller scattered groups at one place.
S4 = Several bigger groups of many plants at one place.
S5 = A large group occupying a large area.
6. Vitality: Capacity of normal growth and reproduction, necessary for
successful survival of a species. Misra and Puri (1954) proposed only
three vitality groups (species capable of completing their life cycle normally
and regularly, plants reproducing only vegetatively, and ephemerals.
Daubenmire (1968) recognised five vitality groups.

a. V1 Species whose seedling die.

b. V1 Seedlings grow but do not reproduce.
c. V1 Reproduction only vegetative.
d. V1 Reproduction sexual but not regularly.
e. V1 Growth normal and sexual reproduction regular.
7. Life form: Danish biogeographer developed the idea of “life form” (a
deep insight into the ecological significance of plant form) in 1907 and
published in 1934.
Philosophy behind the idea of life form:
 Plants grow by developing new shoots from the buds that lie at the apices
of existing shoots and in the leaf axils.
 Within the buds, the meristematic cells are the most sensitive part of the
whole shoot--- the Achilles’ heel of the plant (Achilles’ heel means a
seemingly small but actual mortal weakness).
 Raunkiaer argued that the ways in which these buds (perennating buds,
perennate = survive from season to season, of plants) are protected in
different plants are powerful indicators of the hazards the plant species
face during unfavourable conditions.
PB

PB= Perennating bud

Phanerophytes are further classified into following height
classes:
(i) Megaphanerophytes: Perennial parts including buds are
more than 30 m in height.
(ii) Mesophanerophytes: Between 8 and 30 m height.
(iii) Microphanerophytes: Between 2 and 8 m height.
(iv) Nanophanerophytes: Under 2 m and over 25 cm tall.
Biological/phytoclimatic spectrum: The relative numbers of plant species
per biological type ( phanerophytes, chamaephytes, and therophytes etc.)
occurring in a particular ecosystem, each expressed as a percentage of the
total.
Raunkiaer (1935) made an extensive study of world flora and prepared a
‘Normal Biological Spectrum’ as follows:
Phanerophytes 46%
Chamaephytes 09%
Hemicryptophytes 26%
Cryptophytes/ Geophytes 06%
Therophytes 13%
 Normal Biological Spectrum
50 46
45

40

35

30 26
25

20

13
15
9
10 6
5

0
Phanerophytes Chamaephytes Hemicryptophytes Cryptophytes Therophytes
 PROPORTION OF LIFE FORMS IN VARIOUS CLIMATES

Climate Phan Cham Hemicrypt Crypt Thero

Normal spectrum of 1000 species 46 09 26 06 13
Tropical climate 61-74 06-16 04-12 01-05 05-16
Tundra climate 0—01 22-26 57-68 04-15 02-04
Temperate-moist climate 08-15 02-07 49-52 15-25 09-20
Desert climate 09-26 07-21 18-20 05-08 42-50
 Synthetic characters

1. Presence and constance: This is the extent of occurrence of a particular

species in a community, i.e. how uniformly a species occurs in a number
of stands of the same type of community. A species may be assigned to
any of the five presence classes:
a. Rare Present in 1-20% of sampling units
b. Seldom present Present in 21-40% -----------do-------
c. Often present Present in 41-60% -----------do-------
d. Mostly present Present in 61-80% -----------do-------
e. Constantly present Present in 81-100% -----------do-------
Fidelity: The quality of being faithful. An estimate of the degree with
which a species is restricted in distribution to one kind of community.
There are five fidelity classes:
Fidelity -1 Plants appearing accidentally
Fidelity-2 Indifferent plants, may occur in any community
Fidelity – 3 Occur in many communities, but predominant
in only one (Preferents)
Fidelity-4 Specially present in one community but may
occasionally in other communities (Selective).
Fidelity-5 Occur only in one particular community, never
in others (Exclusive).
Dominance: All species in a community are not equally important.
Importance value index (IVI) is a good measure of the relative importance
of a species in a community.
Importance value index (IVI) = Relative density (RD) + Relative frequency
(RF) + Relative abundance (RA).
 Density of a species
Relative density = X 100
Total of density values of all species

Frequency of a species
Relative frequency = X 100
Total of frequency values of all species

Abundance of a species
Relative abundance = X 100
Total of abundance values of all species
 IVI values are arranged in descending order and plotted and arranged
against species.

300

Species IVI 250

Cynodon dactylon 255
Ageratum conyzoides 110
200
Evolvulus nummularius 100
Parthenium hysterophorus 90
Lindernia crustacea 90 150
Cyperus rotundus 60
Sporobolus diander 50
Ocimum americanum 35 100
Euphorbia hirta 30
Nicotiana plumbaginifolia 20
50