Ecosystems & Living Organisms

http://www.quia.com/files/quia/users/dzdziebko/ecosystem.jpg
 Objectives
At the end of this lecture students should be able to:

• Differentiate between intra-specific and inter-specific

interactions.

• Describe predation, competition and the different types of

symbiosis.
• Differentiate between predator and prey strategies.

• Explain the terms niche and habitat.

• Predict when an organism would occupy its fundamental or

realised niche.

• Differentiate between evolution and succession.

 Interactions Among Organisms

Intraspecific Interactions
Interactions that occur
between members of the
same species. Example:
• Mating, caring for
offspring.
• Competition for food,
water, light, territory or
http://proberts10.wikis.birmingham.k12.mi.us
mates
 Interactions Among Organisms

Interspecific
Interactions

Interaction between
members of different
species

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_NfIGV0h1wfI/Rx1Hr3r4duI/AAAAAAAAABc/39o
pqh_TLTQ/s400/Fox_with_animal_in_mouth_web.jpg
 Interspecific Interactions

There are 3 main interactions among organisms:

1. Predation

2. Symbiosis http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-
CwmyS7OgttU/TzWhSADljSI/AAAAAAAAAas/-
2copQo5yJA/s1600/competition.jpg

3. Competition

http://www.mylfrog.info/common/imag
es/ecosystem_predation.jpg http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/symbiosis-ox.jpg
 Predation

• Relationship where
one organism
consumes another
living or recently killed
organism for food. http://www.bio.miami.edu/dana/dox/symbiosis.html
https://microbenotes.com/predation/

• Includes animals
eating other animals,
animals eating plants
and plants eating
animals.
http://www.thefloweringgarden.com/pics/venus-flytrap2.jpg
http://botany.org/bsa/misc/DioniaTriggerHairs.png
 Predation
Predator
• Depends totally or in
part on killing another
organism for its food

Prey http://futurity.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/prey.jpg

• Organism killed and

eaten by a predator

http://staff.slcschools.org/rdahl/data/_uploaded/8th/Predator%20Prey
%20Lab/predator1.jpg
 Predator Strategies
These include:
1.Pursuit (chase)

2.Ambush (lie in wait)

3.Special hunting traits e.g.,

speed, agility, claws, poison

4. Camouflage

5.Traps ©2010 Kevin spear kevin@kevinspear.com www.kevinspear.com

6.Hunting in packs
N.B. Predators may combine one or more strategies
 Prey Strategies
Plant Defense Strategies
include:

• Spines or thorns
http://cdn.c.photoshelter.com/img-
get/I0000IKm5uBCDXgQ/s/900/720/saguaro-cactus-spines-
EdBook492.jpg

• Leathery or waxy leaves

• Produce bitter or
poisonous chemicals

• Camouflage http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nerium_oleander_flowers_leave
s.jpg
 Prey Strategies
Animal Defense Strategies
include:
• Fleeing

• Camouflage
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_lGcjpUK2NhM/RuH0xr4dLyI/AAAA
• Mechanical defenses e.g. AAAAASY/U9ydsPG3nog/s400/porcupine+fish.jpg

horns and quills

• Chemical defenses e.g. squid

ink, foul smells, poison

• Group living
• Warning colouration
https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/ecology/community-
ecosystem-ecology/a/predation-
herbivory#:~:text=For%20instance%2C%20prey%20species%20ha
ve,chemical%2C%20physical%2C%20or%20behavioral.
http://www.projectaware.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/col
orbox_dont_resize/Foureye%20Butterflyfish.jpg
 Symbiosis
A close relationship between
2 or more unrelated species
usually involving nutrition

The 3 main types of

symbiotic relationships:
1. Mutualism
2. Commensalism
3. Parasitism
Symbiosis Vector Illustration Labeled Living Together
Educational Scheme Stock Illustration
 Mutualism
shark

Symbiotic relationship
where both organisms
benefit from each
clownfish-sea-anemone.jpg(600×385)
Clownfish and Sea anemone
other http://www.mahalo.com
(thefishdoctor.co.uk)
Honey Bee and a Flower

bees.jpg (400×300) (wordpress.com)

 Commensalism
http://fireflyforest.net/firefly/2006/07/21/epiphytes\
/

Symbiotic relationship
where one organism
benefits while the
other is unaffected Epiphyte on a tree

Barnacles on a turtle

Commensalism is where relationship where 1 species

benefits (mammothmemory.net)
 Parasitism
Tomato hornworm and braconid wasps

• Symbiotic relationship
where one organism
(HOST) is adversely
affected by another How Baby Wasps Can Save Your Tomatoes (treehugger.com)
which benefits
Head of the Pork Tapeworm
(PARASITE)

• Well-adapted parasites
do not kill their hosts
e.g., tick on dog,
tapeworm in the human
gut
 Types of Competition
Different Species= interspecific

Same Species = intraspecific

https://www.google.com/search?sxsrf=ALeKk01ZmrCmRk4ic6CEdOVML5D-
kKzDvw:1625830153163&source=univ&tbm=isch&q=images+of+intraspecific+interactions&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjk1_ml8dXxAhXBK80KHdvjALQQjJkEe
gQIBxAC&biw=1366&bih=657#imgrc=InuSKAA3JFmVPM&imgdii=Tw0fmqTpKEjdNM
 Habitat

The physical & biological

resources required by an
organism

• An organism’s “address”

Types Of Habitats Vector Illustration. Labeled Various Species

Home Examples Stock Vector - Illustration of educational, life:
186884858 (dreamstime.com)
 Ecological Niche
Niche
The sum total of all the
requirements and activities of a
species

This includes:
• An organism’s unique role

• What they require to survive

Reduces competition between http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-

90/60/6000/U2RQG00Z/posters/matthew-diffee-the-mcpherson-
species conjoined-quintuplets-find-their-niche-new-yorker-cartoon.jpg
 Fundamental vs. Realized Niche
Fundamental Niche
Full potential range of
physical, chemical &
biological factors a
species could use if
there were no
competition from http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/images/
niche.gif
other species
 Fundamental vs. Realized Niche
Realized Niche
The portion of the
fundamental niche that a
species actually occupies

Species with a narrow

realized niche (specialist
http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/i
species) are more mages/niche.gif

susceptible to extinction
Competitive Exclusion Principle
• Also called Gause’s
Principle

• Two (2) species cannot

live in the same identical
niche & if they try one (1)
will be excluded

Chapter 35: Concept 35.4 (mtchs.org)

• To avoid competitive
exclusion organisms often
engage in resource
partitioning
 Evolution & Succession

The Life Stages Each Man Must Go Through On The Pathway To Ultimate Success – Wade Alters
Consulting – Course Publishing And Copywriting
 Evolution
Evolution - Change in the
genetic material of a population
of organisms from one
generation to the next
• Involve processes which
introduce new variations /
characteristics (mutations or
interbreeding) and processes
Diagram and mnemonic of tree of life and distant
that make new variants either ancestry (mammothmemory.net)

increasingly rare or common

• Does not necessarily mean

speciation
 Natural Selection
A theory advanced by
Charles Darwin (1809 –
1882) to explain how
evolutionary change occurs

If certain individuals are

better able to survive &
leave more offspring
because of their genetic
traits, then frequency of the http://www.clt.astate.edu/mhuss/finches.png
genes will change over
subsequent generations
 Succession

Succession is
a process of
community
development
that involves a
changing
sequence of
species. http://www.sciencescene.com/Environmental%20Science/02TheEnvironment&Ecosystems/SUPPOR
T/Successtion/Primary%20Succession.jpg
 Succession

The pioneer community is

the first community to
colonise or re-colonise an
area.

http://barbaramatthews.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/succession.gif?w=640
 Primary Succession

Community development in
an area that has not been
previously inhabited e.g. on
bare rock, sand, hardened
lava flow from volcano, area
left by a retreating glacier.

Usually takes thousands of

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8b/Rangitotol
years to reach climax avapath.jpg/220px-Rangitotolavapath.jpg

community.
 Secondary Succession

Community development in
an environment that has
been previously inhabited
but was destroyed by some
process e.g. fire, flood,
harvesting etc.
Usually takes hundreds of
Secondary succession in an uncultivated field
years to reach climax http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a2/Secondary
_succesion_cm01.jpg/220px-Secondary_succesion_cm01.jpg
community
 HIGHLIGHTS
1. Predation includes consumption of both plant and
animal prey by predators

2. Mutualism, commensalism and parasitism are types

of symbiotic relationships. All organisms engage in
these relationships. For example, most bacteria in the
human large intestine are beneficial and provide
nutrients such as vitamin K for the body. They in turn
receive a home and food and are thus involved in
mutualism.
 HIGHLIGHTS
4. Habitat is the address of an organism while the niche
includes the role it occupies.
5. In the absence of competition organisms occupy their
fundamental niche. Competition restricts species to a
realised niche.
6. Succession is a process that describes how
communities of species develop. In primary succession
the starting point is an uninhabited area.
7. Evolution occurs over a longer period and describes
changes in genetic composition.
Originally Compiled Raymond Martin
By:

Last Revision Done Adonna Jardine-Comrie, May 2012

By:
Updated By: Christine O’Sullivan, May 2017

Updated By: Adonna Jardine-Comrie, Aug 2021