wiki

cards are here

Community Ecology

$ What is a community?

A group of populations of different species living close enough to interact

$ What are interspecific interactions?

Interspecific between two different species

$ What are intraspecific interactions?

Interactions within the same species.

Interactions

Competition: (-,-)

Always a negative-negative interaction. Both species will be negatively impacted.

$ What is a niche?

Ecological address of a specie. What you eat, habitat, what are your competitors, etc.

$ What is the competitive exclusion principle?

Two species cannot coexist if they compete for the same resource, the one that competes best will overtake the other species.

$ What is the resource partition principle?

When species co-exist even though they have overlapping niches.

$ What is the fundamental niche?

Original niche for a specie

$ What is the realized niche?

Niche occupied by a specie in case of competition with a stronger specie.

Exploitation: (+,-)

• True predation. Ex: lion, gazelle
• Herbivory. Ex: giraffe, leaves
• Parasitism. Ex: fish, parasite

Mutualism: (+,+), Symbiosis

When an association becomes very close, typically at least one species requires the other for survival.

Commensalism: (+,0)

When one party benefits and it doesn’t affect the other. Bird & nest.

Ammensalism (-,0)

Keystone Species

$ What is a keystone species?

A species that has a disproportionate effect on community: predator, mutualist, ecosystem engineer. If a keystone species declines, its decline can have a negative effect on the entire community.

Food chain

Feeding relationship

$ What is a food web?

Multiple food chains