Fundamental Concepts in Ecology 2

Question 1

The study of the effect of interspecific interactions on community structure and organization

Answer 1

Community ecology

Question 2

How are community interactions classified?

Answer 2

Whether they help, harm, or have no effect on the species involved

Question 3

What are the types of interspecific interactions?

Answer 3

Competition (-/-)
Predation(+/-)
Herbivory(+/-)
Symbiosis
-Parasitism(+/-)
-Mutualism(+/+)
-Commensalism(+/0)

Question 4

Indirect interaction

Answer 4

Exploitative
-Resource usage

Question 5

Direct interaction

Answer 5

Interference
-Prevent usage

Question 6

What is the competitive exclusion principle?

Answer 6

2 species competing for the same limiting resource cannot coexist

Question 7

Resource partitioning

Answer 7

Differences in niches allows them to coexist

Question 8

The evolution of traits due to competition

Answer 8

Character displacement

Question 9

Endoparasites vs ectoparasites?

Answer 9

Endo: lives inside the host’s body
Ecto: lives outside the host’s body

Question 10

Obligate vs Facultative mutualism?

Answer 10

Obligate: one/both species has lost the ability to survive without the other

Facultative: Both species can survive on their own

Question 11

Commensalism

Answer 11

A species benefits, the other is not harmed or helped

Question 12

What is the order of the trophic structure?

Answer 12

Bottom:
-Primary producers-plants
-Primary consumers-herbivores
-Secondary consumers-carnivores
-Tertiary consumers
-Quaternary consumers
Top:

Question 13

What is a food chain?

Answer 13

A pathway of energy transfer between species in a community

-Who eats whom

Question 14

Groups deriving food/energy from a similar source

Answer 14

Trophic level

Question 15

The feeding relationships among species in a community which influences community structure

Answer 15

Trophic structure