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51. Community Ecology

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51. Community Ecology

CONCEPT: COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

● Community – all the populations of different organisms that cohabit the same area
● Interspecific interactions – between different species in a community; can be either + or – for survival and reproduction
● Fitness – ability of an individual to survive and reproduce, compared to the average member of the population
● Coevolution – species influence each other’s evolution through interactions that either harm, or benefit
EXAMPLE:

● Commensalism (+/0) – interaction in which one species benefits, and one is unaffected
● Competition (–/–) – interaction in which individuals compete for the same resources, with a negative effect on both
EXAMPLE:

● Herbivory, predation, and parasitism (+/–) – interaction in which one organism benefits, and other organism is harmed
● Mutualism (+/+) – interaction in which both organisms benefit
EXAMPLE:

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51. Community Ecology

CONCEPT: COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

● Ecological niche – role an organism, or population, plays in a particular area
● Fundamental niche – all environmental conditions suitable to an organism’s survival, ignoring interspecific interactions
□ Realized niche – part of fundamental niche an organism actually occupies, given limiting factors
EXAMPLE:

● Intraspecific competition – density-dependent, between individuals of the same species for the same resources
● Interspecific competition – individuals of different species in a community have overlapping niches
□ Symmetric competition – both species are negatively affected by the competition between them
□ Asymmetric competition – one species is much more negatively affected than the other
□ Fitness trade-off – finite energy capacity means increasing proficiency in one area occurs at expense of another
- Species that excel at competing for certain resources will be lacking in other areas

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51. Community Ecology

CONCEPT: COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

● Competitive exclusion – two species that occupy same niche cannot coexist, without disturbance one will outcompete
EXAMPLE:

● Niche differentiation – competing species in a community use their environment differently to better coexist
□ Resource partitioning – similar species differentiate niches, using different resources to better coexist
EXAMPLE:

● Character displacement – similar species whose distributions overlap develop differences to reduce competition
EXAMPLE:

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51. Community Ecology

CONCEPT: COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

● Predation – predator consumes another organism, the prey
□ Carnivore – meat-eater, animal that feeds on flesh
□ Herbivory – predation when an animal consumes a plant
- Herbivore – plant-eater, animal that feeds on plant tissue
□ Predators can keep prey populations below carrying capacity
□ Herbivore populations are balanced by predation and disease; plants have also evolved defenses
EXAMPLE:

● Predators and prey, and herbivores and plants are in an evolutionary arms race
□ Constitutive defenses – always present, regardless of predators
□ Inducible defenses – physical, behavioral, or chemical traits induced in response to the presence of predators
EXAMPLE:

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51. Community Ecology

CONCEPT: COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

● Aposematic coloration – warning coloration, in the form of bright colors that signaling chemical defenses
● Cryptic coloration – camouflage that makes prey hard to see
EXAMPLE:

● Mimicry – similarity evolved by one organism to resemble another in some way

□ Batesian mimicry – mimicry of species to imitate the warning sign of species harmful their common predator
□ Mullerian mimicry – two distinct species mimic each other’s warning signs to their common predator
EXAMPLE:

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51. Community Ecology

CONCEPT: COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

● Symbiosis – long-term, close association between organisms of different species
□ Host – organism that harbors a symbiont, be they parasitic, mutual, or commensal relationships
□ Mutualism – relationship in which both species benefit, can be potentially necessary to survival of each organism
□ Commensalism – relationship in which one organism benefits, and the other is unaffected
● Facilitation – interaction in which one or both species benefit (+/+ or +/0), without a symbiotic relationship

● Parasitism – relationship between species in which one, the parasite, benefits at the expense of the host
□ Endoparasites – live in the bodies of their hosts
□ Ectoparasites – live on the outside of their hosts

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51. Community Ecology

CONCEPT: COMMUNITY ECOLOGY

EXAMPLE:

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51. Community Ecology

CONCEPT: COMMUNITY STRUCTURE

● DCommunity structure has four key components:
□ Species richness – number of different species in a community
□ Relative abundance – how many individuals of a species, relative to others in the community
- Species diversity – measure of species richness, and relative abundance
EXAMPLE:

□ Interactions between all the species of the community

□ Physical aspects of community like size, altitude, and type of vegetation
● Higher species diversity often leads to greater biomass production, and greater resistance to invasive species
EXAMPLE:

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51. Community Ecology

CONCEPT: COMMUNITY STRUCTURE

● Trophic structure – transfer of energy through trophic levels
● Food chain – linear network of links in a food web, starting from producers and going up levels of consumers
● Food web – interconnected food chains
● Energetic hypothesis – length of the food chain is limited by the inefficient transfer of energy up trophic levels
EXAMPLE:

● Bottom-up model – influence of lower trophic levels determines higher levels

● Top-down model – predation controls community structures by limiting herbivores
EXAMPLE:

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51. Community Ecology

CONCEPT: COMMUNITY STRUCTURE

● Dominant species – species that dominates a community, either in abundance or biomass
● Keystone species – species with a significant effect on its community, though not dominant species
□ Removal of the keystone species dramatically changes the community structure
● Ecosystem engineers – organisms that significantly modify or maintain their habitat
EXAMPLE:

● Disturbance - temporary change in environment that results in a change in the ecosystem

□ Includes events like fires, storms, floods, and disease outbreaks
□ Changes a community by removing organisms, or altering resource availability
□ Disturbance regime – recurring disturbance pattern
● Nonequilibrium model – communities are constantly changing after disturbances
● Intermediate disturbance hypothesis – moderate levels of disturbance lead to greater species diversity
EXAMPLE:

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51. Community Ecology

CONCEPT: COMMUNITY STRUCTURE

● Ecological succession – change in the species structure of a community over time
● Climax community – steady state achieved through the process of ecological succession
EXAMPLE:

● Primary succession – new substrate lacking soil, vegetation, and other life that gets colonized by new organisms
□ Glaciers retreating, volcanos erupting, floods, and landslides can lead to primary succession
EXAMPLE:

● Secondary succession – previously inhabited area is colonized by new organisms after a disturbance
□ Fires and human disturbances can lead to secondary succession
EXAMPLE:

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51. Community Ecology

CONCEPT: COMMUNITY STRUCTURE

● Facilitation – presence of earlier species makes conditions more favorable for later species
□ Pioneering species – hearty species that are the first to colonize, and help develop the soil for later organisms
- Lichens, mosses, shrubs, and various weeds are common pioneer species
● Tolerance – existing species don’t affect the subsequent species that arrive
● Inhibition – presence of one species prevents another species from inhabiting the area
EXAMPLE:

● Glacier Bay in Alaska had a rapid glacial retreat over the past 200 years, leading to primary succession in the area
□ Recently uncovered areas have pioneer species
□ Small shrubs called Dryas inhabit more developed areas, and are succeeded by alder, then spruce trees
□ Hemlocks arrived in more developed areas with spruce trees, forming spruce-hemlock forests
EXAMPLE:

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51. Community Ecology

CONCEPT: COMMUNITY STRUCTURE

● Biogeography has large-scale effects on communities and species diversity, especially latitude and area
□ Different latitudes have markedly different climates, which lead to differences in sunlight and precipitation
□ Tropical regions receive ample sunlight and have ample precipitation
□ Evapotranspiration – evaporation of water from soil and plants, moving it from land to atmosphere
EXAMPLE:

● Species-area curve – relationship between area of habitat and number of species in that habitat
□ Larger areas tend to have larger numbers of species
EXAMPLE:

● Island equilibrium model – balance between species immigration and extinction that maintains stable species count
EXAMPLE:

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