Chapter 4

Species Interactions
and Community
Ecology

Essential Environment:
The Science Behind the Stories
4th Edition

Withgott/Laposata Lecture Presentations prepared by

Heidi Marcum
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
This lecture will help you understand:

• Species interactions
• Feeding relationships, energy flow, trophic levels, and
food webs
• Keystone species
• The process of
succession
• Potential impacts
of invasive species
• Restoration ecology
• Terrestrial biomes

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Central Case Study: Black and White and
Spread All Over

• In 1988, discharged ship

ballast water accidentally
released zebra mussels into
Lake St. Clair
• By 2010, they had spread to
30 states
– No natural predators,
competitors, or parasites
• They cause millions of
dollars of property damage
each year
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
Species interactions

• Species interactions are the backbone of communities

• Effects of species interactions on the participants:

Type of interaction Effect on Species 1 Effect on Species 2

Competition – –
Predation, parasitism, + –
herbivory
Mutualism + +
“+”: positive effect “–”: negative effect

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Competition occurs with limited resources

• Competition: multiple organisms seek the same limited

resource
– Food, water, space, shelter, mates, sunlight, etc.
• Intraspecific competition: between members of the same
species
– High population density: increased competition
• Interspecific competition: between members of different
species
– Strongly affects community composition
– Leads to competitive exclusion or species coexistence

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Results of interspecific competition

• Competition is usually subtle and indirect

• One species may exclude another from using the resource
– Zebra mussels displaced native mussels in the Great Lakes
– Quagga mussels are now displacing zebra mussels
• Or, competing species may be able to coexist
– Natural selection favors individuals that use different
resources or shared resources in different ways

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Resource partitioning

• Resource partitioning:
competing species coexist
by specializing
– By using different
resources (small vs. large
seeds)
– Or using shared resources
differently (active during
day vs. night)

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

An exploitative interaction: predation

• Exploitation: one
member benefits while
the other is harmed
(+/- interactions)
– Predation,
parasitism, herbivory

• Predation: process by which individuals of one

species (predators) capture, kill, and consume
individuals of another species (prey)
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
Predation affects the community

• Interactions between predators and prey structure food

webs
• The number of predators and prey influences community
composition
• Predators can, themselves, become prey
– Zebra mussels eat smaller types of zooplankton
– Zebra mussels are prey for North American predators (fish,
ducks, muskrats, crayfish)

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Predation can drive population dynamics
• Increased prey populations increase food for predators
– Predators survive and reproduce
• Increased predator populations decrease prey
– Predators starve and their populations decrease
• Decreased predator populations increase prey populations

Insert Fig. 4.4

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Predation has evolutionary ramifications

• Natural selection leads to evolution of adaptations that

make predators better hunters
• Individuals who are better at catching prey:
– Live longer, healthier lives
– Take better care of offspring
• Prey face strong selection pressures—they are at risk of
immediate death
– Prey develop elaborate defenses against being eaten

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Prey develop defenses against being eaten

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

An exploitative interaction: parasitism
• Parasitism: a relationship in which one organism
(parasite) depends on another (host)
– For nourishment or some other benefit
– The parasite harms, but doesn’t kill, the host
• Some parasites contact hosts infrequently
– Cuckoos, cowbirds
• Some live within the host
– Disease, tapeworms
• Some live on the
hosts’ exterior
– Ticks, sea lampreys
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
Parasite – host relationships

• Parasitoids: insects that parasitize other insects

– Kill the host
– Example: wasp larvae burrow into, and kill, caterpillars
• Coevolution: hosts and parasites become locked in a
duel of escalating adaptations
– Has been called an evolutionary arms race
– Each evolves new responses to the other
• It may not be beneficial to the parasite to kill its host

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

An exploitative interaction: herbivory

• Herbivory: animals feed on the

tissues of plants
– Widely seen in insects
• May not kill the plant
– But affects its growth and
reproduction
• Defenses against herbivory include:
– Chemicals: toxic or distasteful
– Thorns, spines, or irritating hairs
• Herbivores may overcome these
defenses
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
Mutualists help one another

• Two or more species benefit from their interactions

– Each partner provides a service the other needs (food,
protection, housing, etc.)
• Symbiosis: a relationship in which the organisms live in
close physical contact (mutualism and parasitism)
– Microbes within digestive tracts
– Mycorrhizae: plant roots and fungi
– Coral and algae (zooxanthellae)
• Pollination: bees, bats, birds, and others transfer pollen
from one flower to another, fertilizing its eggs

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Pollination

• In exchange for the plant nectar, the animals pollinate

plants, which allows them to reproduce

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Ecological communities

• Community: an assemblage of populations of organisms

living in the same area at the same time
– Members interact with each other
– Interactions determine the structure, function, and species
composition of the community
• Community ecologists are interested in how:
– Species coexist and interact with one another
– Communities change, and why these patterns exist

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Energy passes among trophic levels

• One of the most important

species interactions
– Who eats whom?
• Matter and energy move
through the community
• Trophic levels: rank in
the feeding hierarchy
– Producers (autotrophs)
– Consumers
– Detritivores and
decomposers
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
Producers: the first trophic level

• Producers, or autotrophs (“self-feeders”): organisms

capture solar energy for photosynthesis to produce sugars
– Green plants
– Cyanobacteria
– Algae
• They capture solar energy and use photosynthesis to
produce sugars

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Consumers: consume producers

• Primary consumers: second trophic level

– Organisms that consume producers
– Herbivorous grazing animals
– Deer, grasshoppers
• Secondary consumers: third trophic level
– Organisms that prey on primary consumers
– Wolves, rodents, birds
• Tertiary consumers: fourth trophic level
– Predators
– Hawks, owls

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Detritivores and decomposers

• Organisms that consume nonliving organic matter

• Detritivores: scavenge waste products or dead bodies
– Millipedes, soil insects
• Decomposers: break down leaf litter and other nonliving
material
– Fungi, bacteria
– Enhance topsoil and recycle nutrients

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Energy, biomass, and numbers

• Most energy that organisms use in cellular respiration is

lost as waste heat
– Less and less energy is available in each successive
trophic level
– Each trophic level contains only 10% of the energy of
the trophic level below it
• There are also far fewer organisms and less biomass
(mass of living matter) at the higher trophic levels

A human vegetarian uses less energy and has a smaller

ecological footprint than a meat eater
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
Pyramids of energy, biomass, and numbers

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Food webs show relationships and energy
flow

• Food chain: a series of

feeding relationships
• Food web: a visual map
of feeding relationships
and energy flow among
organisms

Food webs are greatly

simplified and leave
out most species
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
Some organisms play big roles

• Keystone species: has a

strong or wide-reaching
impact
– Far out of proportion to
its abundance
• Removing a keystone
species has substantial
ripple effects
– Alters the food web
• Large-bodied secondary
or tertiary consumers
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
Species can change communities

• Trophic cascade: predators at high trophic levels

indirectly promote populations at low trophic levels
– By keeping species at intermediate trophic levels in check
• Extermination of wolves led to increased deer
populations …
– Which overgrazed vegetation …
– Which changed forest structure
• Ecosystem engineers: physically modify the environment
– Beaver dams, prairie dogs, ants

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Communities respond to disturbances

• Communities experience many types of disturbance

– Removal of keystone species, natural disturbances (fires,
floods, etc.)
– Human impacts cause major community changes
• Resistance: a community resists change and remains
stable despite the disturbance
• Resilience: a community changes in response to a
disturbance, but later returns to its original state
• Or, a disturbed community may never return to its
original state

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Primary succession

• Succession: the predictable series

of changes in a community
– After a severe disturbance
• Primary succession: disturbance
removes all vegetation and/or soil
life
– Glaciers, drying lakes, volcanic
lava covering the land
• Pioneer species: the first species to
arrive in a primary succession area
– Lichens: fungi + algae
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
Secondary succession
• Secondary succession: a disturbance has removed
much, but not all, of the biotic community
– Fires, hurricanes, logging, farming
• Aquatic systems can also undergo succession
– Ponds eventually fill in to become terrestrial systems
• Climax community: remains in place with few changes
– Until another
disturbance restarts
succession

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Communities may undergo shifts

• Community changes are more variable and less

predictable than early models of succession suggested
– Conditions at one stage may promote another stage
– Competition may inhibit progression to another stage
– Chance factors also affect changes
• Phase (regime) shift: the overall character of the
community fundamentally changes
– Some crucial threshold is passed, a keystone species is lost,
or an exotic species invades
– Example: overfishing and depletion of fish and turtles has
allowed algae to dominate coral reef communities
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
Invasive species threaten stability

• Alien (exotic) species: non-native species from

somewhere else enters a new community
• Invasive species: non-native species that spreads
widely and become dominant in a community
– Introduced deliberately or accidentally
– Growth-limiting factors (predators, disease, competitors,
etc.) are absent
– Major ecological effects
– Pigs, goats, and rats have destroyed island species
• But some invasive species (e.g., honeybees) help
people
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
Invasive mussels modify communities

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Controlling invasive species

• Techniques to control invasive species include:

– Removing them manually
– Applying toxic chemicals
– Drying them out, depriving them of oxygen
– Introducing predators or diseases
– Stressing them with heat, sound, electricity, carbon
dioxide, or ultraviolet light
• Control and eradication are hard and expensive
Prevention, rather than control, is the best policy

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Altered communities can be restored

• Humans have dramatically changed ecological systems

– Severely degraded systems cease to function
• Restoration ecology: the science of restoring an area to
an earlier (presettlement) condition
– Tries to restore the system’s functionality (e.g., filtering of
water by a wetland)
• Ecological restoration: actual efforts to restore an area
– Difficult, time-consuming, and expensive
It is best to protect natural systems from degradation in
the first place
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
Examples of restoration efforts

• Prairie restoration: replanting native species, controlling

invasive species, controlled fire to mimic natural fires
• The world’s largest project: Florida Everglades
– Flood control and irrigation removed its water
– Populations of wading
birds dropped 90–95%
– It will take 30 years
and billions of dollars
to restore natural
water flow

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Widely separated regions share similarities

• Biome: major regional complex of similar communities

recognized by:
– Plant type
– Vegetation
structure

There are about 10

terrestrial biomes

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Abiotic factors influence biome locations
• The type of biome depends on temperature, precipitation
– Also air and ocean circulation, soil type
• Climatographs: a climate diagram showing an area’s
mean monthly temperature and precipitation

Similar biomes occupy

similar latitudes

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Aquatic systems have biome-like patterns

• Various aquatic systems comprise distinct communities

– Coastlines, continental shelves, open ocean, deep sea
– Coral reefs, kelp forests
• Some coastal systems (estuaries, marshes, etc.) have both
aquatic and terrestrial components
• Aquatic systems are shaped by
– Water temperature, salinity, dissolved nutrients
– Wave action, currents, depth, light levels
– Substrate type
• Animals, not plants, delineate marine communities

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Temperate deciduous forest

• Deciduous trees lose their

broad leaves each fall
– They remain dormant during
winter
• Midlatitude forests in Europe,
east China, eastern North
America
• Even, year-round precipitation
• Fertile soils
• Forests: oak, beech, maple

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Temperate grasslands

• More temperature difference

– Between winter and summer
• Less precipitation supports
grasses, not trees
• Also called steppe or prairie
• Once widespread, but has
been converted to agriculture
• Bison, prairie dogs, ground-
nesting birds, pronghorn

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Temperate rainforest

• U.S. coastal Pacific

Northwest
• Heavy rainfall
• Coniferous trees: cedar,
spruce, hemlock, fir
• Moisture-loving animals
– Banana slug
• Erosion and landslides
affect the fertile soil
• Most old-growth is gone
as a result of logging
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
Tropical rainforest

• Southeast Asia, west Africa

Central and South America
• Year-round rain and warm
temperatures
• Dark and damp
• Lush vegetation
• Diverse species
– But in low densities
• Very poor, acidic soils
– Nutrients are in the plants

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Tropical dry forest

• Also called tropical

deciduous forest
– Plants drop leaves during
the dry season
• India, Africa, South
America, north Australia
• Wet and dry seasons
• Warm, but less rainfall
• Converted to agriculture
– Severe soil erosion

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Savanna

• Tropical grassland
interspersed with trees
• Africa, South America,
Australia, India
• Precipitation occurs only
during the rainy season
• Animals gather near water
holes
• Zebras, gazelles, giraffes,
lions, hyenas

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Desert

• Minimal precipitation
• Sahara: bare, with sand dunes
• Sonoran: heavily vegetated
• Temperatures vary widely
– Day vs. night, seasonally
• Soils (lithosols): high
mineral content, low organic
matter
• Animals: nocturnal, nomadic
• Plants: thick skins, spines

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Tundra

• Russia, Canada, Scandinavia

• Minimal rain, very cold
winters
• Permafrost: permanently
frozen soil
• Residents: polar bears, musk
oxen
• Migratory birds, caribou
• Lichens, low vegetation, no
trees
• Alpine tundra: on
mountaintops
© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.
Boreal forest (taiga)

• Canada, Alaska, Russia,

Scandinavia
• A few evergreen tree species
• Cool and dry climate
– Long, cold winters
– Short, cool summers
• Nutrient poor, acidic soil
• Moose, wolves, bears, lynx,
migratory birds

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Chaparral

• Occurs in small patches

around the globe
• Mediterranean Sea, Chile,
California, south Australia
• Densely thicketed,
evergreen shrubs
• Highly seasonal biome
– Mild, wet winters
– Warm, dry summers
• Fire-resistant plants

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.

Conclusion

• Species interactions affect communities

– Competition, predation, parasitism, competition,
mutualism
– Causing weak and strong, direct and indirect effects
• Feeding relationships are represented by trophic levels
and food webs
• Humans have altered many communities
– Partly by introducing non-native species
• Ecological restoration attempts to undo the negative
changes that we have caused

© 2012 Pearson Education, Inc.