Habitat and Niche Flashcards
(21 cards)
What is a habitat?
The area where an organism lives.
What is an ecological niche?
The range of physical, chemical, and biological conditions in an organism’s habitat and how it uses those conditions to survive.
How can three different species of birds share the same tree?
They occupy different niches.
What are the components of an ecological niche?
- Food eaten
- How it gets food
- Who eats the organism
- Abiotic conditions where it likes to live
- Behavior for active time of day and mating times
What is the role of resource availability in a community?
It gives structure to a community.
What is competition in ecosystems?
When organisms try to use an ecological resource in the same place and at the same time.
What does the competitive exclusion principle state?
No two species can occupy a niche in the same habitat at the same time.
What is niche partitioning?
When two organisms use different resources within the niche to avoid competition.
What is predation?
One organism captures and feeds on another.
Provide an example of predation.
Cheetahs hunt, kill and eat a gazelle.
What is symbiosis?
A close relationship between species that live in direct contact.
What is mutualism?
Both organisms benefit from the relationship.
Give an example of mutualism.
The plover bird eats leftover food and parasites out of the crocodile’s mouth.
What is commensalism?
One organism benefits, the other is not helped or harmed.
Provide an example of commensalism.
Barnacles live on the blue whale and get a free ride around the ocean.
What is parasitism?
Organisms that live in or on another organism and harm it.
Give an example of parasitism.
Mosquitoes suck the blood from animals and may transmit disease.
Identify the type of interaction: Insects feeding on a bison’s blood.
Parasitism
Identify the type of interaction: Clownfish living in a sea anemone.
Mutualism
Identify the type of interaction: A sea lion eating a small shark.
Predator-prey
Identify the type of interaction: A bee feeding on a flower.
Mutualism
