Community ecology

Question 1

An ecological community is composed of:

Answer 1

All populations of all species living close enough for actual or potential interaction, directly or indirectly

Question 2

What are the building blocks of community ecology?

Answer 2

Species Interactions

Question 3

Negative interactions for species x and y =

Answer 3

Competition

Question 4

Interactions positive for species x and negative for species y =

Answer 4

Predation

Question 5

Classifications of interactions based on outcomes for individual species and joint outcomes for all species involved:

Answer 5

Help / Hinder / No effect

Question 6

Interspecific competition

Answer 6

• multiple species exploiting same limited resource
• negative impact on all species involved
• competition exclusion
• limiting resources means no 2 species can co-exist in the same space

Question 7

what is an ecological niche?

Answer 7

The sum of a species’ use of the biotic and abiotic resources in it’s environment

Question 8

Consequences of competition

Answer 8

• drives species to occupy different niches
• species can co-exist if niches are sufficiently different, if they change or only slightly overlap

Question 9

How might a species niche change?

Answer 9

• natural selection for a species to access different resources
• this differentiation = Resource partitioning

Question 10

Competition and resource partitioning can lead to what?

Answer 10

Character displacement

Question 11

When does character displacement occur?

Answer 11

When related species are more similar in isolation then when they occur together
- Allopatry and sympatry