Community Ecology
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61 terms
Terms | Definitions |
|---|---|
 community | all organisms of all species inhabiting a particular area, living close enough together for potential interaction |
| composition, richness, abundance | three characteristics of communities with regard to species |
| individualistic | hypothesis depicting a community as a chance assemblage of species found in the same area because they have similar abiotic requirements |
| interactive | hypothesis depicting a community as an assemblage of closely linked species locked in mandatory biotic interactions |
| gradient | species are usually arranged along one of these, independent of other species |
| competition | type of biological interaction that is detrimental to both species |
| parasitism, carnivory | two types of biological interaction that are beneficial to one species and detrimental to another |
| commensalism | type of biological interaction where one species benefits and another is unaffected |
| mutualism | type of biological interaction where both species benefit from the interaction |
| competition | this occurs when a resource (food or space) is in short supply, either between individuals of same or different species |
| extinction, coexist | two possible outcomes of interspecific competition- either one species drives the other to death or they manage to get along |
| ecological niche | the sum total of an organisms's use of abiotic/biotic resources in the environment |
| habitat | the physical location of a species |
| fundamental | type of niche that can potentially be occupied by a species |
| realized | type of niche that is actually occupied by a species |
| competitive exclusion | in this principle, two species with similar needs for the same limiting resources cannot coexist in the same place |
| resource partitioning | coexisting species divide up the resource space to reduce competition (tropical lizards in trees) |
| characteristic displacement | species evolve physical differences to use different resources and reduce competition (Galapagos finches): characteristics are more divergent in sympatric populations than in allopatric populations |
| Lotka-Volterra | name of the competition equations: dN/dT=rN(K-N-a12N2)/K |
| carnivory | when a predator eats an animal prey |
| herbivory | when an animal eats plants |
| parasitism | when a species lives in or on a host and depends on the host for nutrition |
| cryptic coloration | an animal defense against predators that serves as camouflage |
| industrial melanism | the peppered moth is a classic example of natural selection where cryptic coloration is related to bird predation |
| aposematic | this type of coloration warns predators of a chemical defense (poison dart frogs) |
| mimicry | when organisms resemble other species for some adaptive purpose |
| Batesian | this kind of mimicry is where a harmless species mimics a harmful one |
| Mullerian | this kind of mimicry is where two or more unpalatable species resemble each other so that predators have less to remember (black and yellow stripes) |
| endoparasite | a species that lives inside the host such as nematodes and flatworms |
| ectoparasite | a species that lives on the surface of the host (leeches, ticks, mice, lice, fleas) |
| parasitoidism | a type of parasitism where a wasp lays eggs in a living host and eventually kills it |
| pathogen | a disease-causing organism |
| mutualism | for example, acacia trees and ants |
| commensalism | for example, a barnacle (crustacean) attached to a scallop (mollusk) |
| coevolution | reciprocal evolutionary adaptations of two interacting species |
| trophic structure | in a community, this is determined by the feeding relationships between organisms |
| food chain | the transfer of food energy from its source in photosynthetic organisms through herbivores and carnivores |
| trophic levels | "links" of the food chain, usually about five make up a food chain |
| primary producer, primary consumer, secondary consumer | first three trophic levels of a food chain |
| energetic hypothesis | this states that the length of a food chain is limited by inefficiency of energy transfer along the chain |
| dynamic stability hypothesis | this states that long food chains are less stable than short chains |
| dominant | species in a community that has the highest abundance or highest biomass |
| biomass | the sum weight of all individuals in a population |
| keystone | species that exerts an important regulating effect on other species in a community (seastars) |
| bottom up | this model postulations V=>H linkages, where nutrients and vegetation control community organization |
| top down | this model postulates V<=H linkages, where predation controls community organization |
| disturbance | an event such as fire, weather, or human activities that can alter a community |
| resistance | the type of stability in which a community can persist in the face of disturbance |
| resilience | the type of stability in which a community can "bounce back" after a disturbance |
| low high | a prairie has a ___ resistance to fire and a ___ resilience because it bounces back quickly |
| humans | the most widespread agents of disturbance |
| ecological succession | the sequence of community changes after a disturbance, the transition in species composition over ecological time |
| primary | this type of succession begins in a lifeless area where soil has not yet formed, such as a volcanic island or a receding glacier |
| secondary | this type of succession occurs where an existing community has been cleared by some event, but the soil is left intact |
| biodiversity | in a community, the number of species and the relative abundance of species |
| size, biogeography | two key factors correlated with a community's biodiversity |
| species richness | with regard to biodiversity, the total number of species in a community |
| relative abundance | with regard to biodiversity, the ratio of species to one another |
| greater | the larger the geographic area, the ______ the number of species |
| size, distance from mainland | two factors that MacArthur and Wilson claimed affected species richness on islands |
| ecosystem | consists of all organisms in a community as well as all abiotic factors with which they interact |
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