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| assemblage of plant and animal population that live in a particular area/habitat |
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| populations of various species in a community utilize, decompose, compete with, and alter the fate of each other |
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| seeks to explain the underlying mechanisms that create, maintain, and determine the fate of biological communities |
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documented observations/used to generate hypotheses
-vegetatoin zonation
-species lists
-seasonal distribution of activity
-association of certain species |
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-herbivore
-competition
-predation risk
-nutrient availability
-patterns of disturbance
-energy flow
-history
-evolution |
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| emergent properties of a community |
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Definition
-spatial and temporal structure
-species richness
-species diversity
-trophic structure
-succession and disturbance |
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way species are distributed relative to each other
ex. trees in a tropical rainforest |
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-timing of the appearance and activity of species
-some communities have very pronounced temporal seasons |
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| number of species in a community |
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| number of species in the community related to their relative abundance |
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D= 1- Sum(Pi)^2
1- [(a/total)^2 + (b/total)^2 + (c/total)^2 + ect..] |
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| species richness "equation" |
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-predictable changes in species over time, as each new set of species modifies the environment to enable the establishment of other species
-ubiquitous (universal) |
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| events that damage communities, remover organisms from them, and alter resource availability |
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-disturbances create an ecological vacuum that can be filled from within, the outside, or both
-best invaders have good dispersal powers and many offspring (not good competitors) |
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-recovery of life
-driven by the interactions among dispersal, ecological tolerances, and competitive ability
-primary/secondary |
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-fire
-flood
-drought
-large herbivores
-stroms
-volcano
-human activity |
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| on newly exposed land-forms that have not previously been influenced by a community (ie. after glaciers) |
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| when vegetation of an area has been partially or completely removed, but where soil/seeds/spores remain |
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-more or less permanent and final stage of a particular succession, often characteristic of a restricted area
-slow rates of change
-dominated by species tolerant of competition of resources |
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-argued that communities work like an integrated machine
-have predictable compositions
-somewhat of an oversimplification |
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hypothesized that random events determined the composition of communities
-was right |
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| are biological communities real functional units? (clements) |
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Definition
-communities are stable, functional units with a fixed composition-each integrated part needs the others
-every area should ultimately have the same species, given time |
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| are biological communities real functional units? (gleason) |
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Definition
-composition is unstable and variable
-communities like assemblages of everything that can live together in one place |
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-transfer of energy
-hierarchy of feeding in a community
i.e. eating, decomposing, obtaining energy via photosynthesis. |
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| follows the transfer of energy from bottom to the top |
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-food chain is ONE PATH through a food web
-food web has many different paths |
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-organism’s habitat, the resources it uses, and its way of making a living, within the context of a community
-reflected by it's place in food web (what it eats/what it competes with, what eats it) |
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| **each organism has the potential to create niches for others |
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-disproportionately important in communities
-if removed, entire ecosystem collapses |
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| examples of keystone species |
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Definition
-California Sea Otters: This species preys upon sea urchins, allowing kelp forests to become established.
-Pisaster Starfish: Grazing by Pisaster prevents the establishment of dense mussel beds, allowing other species to colonize rocks on the Pacific Coast.
-“Mangrove” Trees: Mangrove seeds disperse in salt water. They take root and form a dense forest in saltwater shallows, allowing other species to thrive
-The Acorn Banksia: At certain times of year, Banksia prionotes is the sole source of food for honeyeaters, which in turn, are the pollinators for many other species of plants in Western Australia. |
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-species at one trophic level influence species at other levels
-the positive and negative outcomes of changing a trophic level
(ie. removing a secondary consumer might positively affect the primary consumer they feed upon and negatively affect the producter that are food for primary consumers |
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-upper level consumers directly affect the lower end
-diomass of hervivores was positively correlated to the biomass of producers, when introduced fish that eat herbivores, the producers increased |
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| -lower level producer directly affect the population size of the upper level consumers |
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| occurs when organisms in the same community seek the same limiting resource |
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| intraspecific competition |
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Definition
| competition among members of the same species |
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| interspecific competition |
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| competition among members of different species |
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| occurs when individuals use the same limiting resources, thus depleting the amount of available to others |
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occurs when individuals interfere with the foraging, survival, or reproduction of others, or directly prevent their physical establishment in a portion of a habitat
(ex. beetles cannibalize eggs of own/other species) |
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-outcome of exploitation competition
-one organism mus require less of the limiting resource to survive
-dominant species must reduce the quantity of the resources below some critical level |
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| partitioning the resources |
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| competitive exclusion principle |
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Definition
| two species cannot compete for the same limiting resource for long |
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Definition
-Species that share the same habitat and have similar needs frequently use resources in somewhat different ways - so that they do not come into direct competition for at least part of the limiting resource
(ex. dif species living in different parts of trees) |
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| character displacement (?) |
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Definition
-sympatic populations of similar species frequently have differences in body structure relative to allopatric population of the same species
-similar species with same characteristics will differ when living in the same area together (ie. finch beaks) |
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| set of resources and habitats an organism could theoretically use under ideal conditions |
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| set of resources and habitats an organism actually used: it is generally much more restricted due to interspecific competition (or predation.) |
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| -two organisms cannot occupy exactly the same niche |
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(-0)
one species suffers and the other interacting species experiences no effect |
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(-0)
-production and release of chemical substances by one species that inhibit the growth of another
-can be seen as amensalism |
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| chemicals produced by plants that seem to have no direct use in metabolism |
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interspecific interaction where one species benefits and the other is unaffected.
(frequently live in the nests, or on the bodies, of the other species) |
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interspecific interaction between two species that benefits both members.
-population of each species grows at higher rate in the presence of the other species |
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type of mutualism in which individuals interact physically, or even live within the body of the other mutualist.
(relationship is often essential for the survival of at least one member) (ex. lichens) |
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| are not essential for the survival of either species but helpful |
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| essential for the survival of one or both species |
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| Predators, parasites, parasitoids, and herbivores |
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| obtain food at the expense of their host/prey |
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| tend to be larger than prey and consume many prey during their lifetime |
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-smaller than host
-consume host from inside/outside
-pathogens are parasitic microbes-many generations live in same host
parasites may have one->many hosts |
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| consume host from the outside |
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| hunt their prey like predators but lay eggs within the body of a host where they develop |
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| suggested that the interaction between parasite and hose should resemble and evolutionary arms race |
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Definition
-First a parasite (or predator) evolves a trait that allows it to attack its host (or prey).
-Next, natural selection favors host individuals that are able to defend themselves against the new trait.
-As the frequency of resistant host individuals increases, there is natural selection for parasites with novel traits to subvert the host defenses.
-This process continues as long as both species survive. |
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| Predator-Prey Population Dynamics |
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Definition
-The degree of prey mortality is a function of the density of the predator population
-The density of the prey population, in turn, affects the birth and death rates of the predator population
-lag effect
-needs to be a balance |
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-when predators drive their prey to extinction
-no alternate prey -> they die
-makes habitat available for recolonization by the prey species in another area |
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| three outcomes of predation |
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Definition
-prey extinct -> predator extinct
-prey extinct -> find new prey
-time-lag effect -> predator-prey oscillations |
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-assumes that prey destruction is a function not only of natural enemy numbers, but also of prey density -predicts the predator-prey oscillations sometimes seen in nature
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