Interactions in the Community

Question 1

When does competition occur in a community?

Answer 1

Competition occurs when a large number of organisms depend on a common resource that is in short supply

Question 2

What are the two types of competition within a community?

Answer 2

• intraspecific competition
• interspecific competition

Question 3

What is intraspecific competition?

Answer 3

Competition that occurs between organisms of the same species

Question 4

What is interspecific competition?

Answer 4

Competition that occurs between organisms of different species

Question 5

What affects the prevalence of competition and what does the prevalence of competition affect?

Answer 5

If the availability of resources decreases, competition increases.

Competition influences population growth

Question 6

What does an ecological niche take into account?

Answer 6

An ecological niche takes into account all biotic and abiotic aspects of a the species’ existence

Question 7

What does an ecological niche include?

Answer 7

• what a species eats
• what eats it
• organisms it competes with
• how it interacts with the abiotic components

Question 8

What is competitive exclusion?

Answer 8

When two species are similar and have overlapping ecological niches

Question 9

What is competitive exclusion the result of?

Answer 9

Competitive exclusion is the result of interspecific competition when one species out-competes the other

Question 10

What is resource partitioning?

Answer 10

Resource partitioning is when species divide up the resources in order to minimize competition

Question 11

What are the two types of resources?

Answer 11

• intraspecific resources
• interspecific resources

Question 12

What are intraspecific resources?

Answer 12

• resources shared between organisms of the same species

Question 13

What are interspecific resources?

Answer 13

• resources shared between different species which have similar ecological requirements