Species Interactions and Community Ecology Flashcards
(22 cards)
What is the trophic level?
Ranking of species within the feeding hierarchy
What does trophic mean?
Nutrition
What are secondary consumers?
organisms that obtain energy by consuming primary consumer
What are Keystone Species?
Species that have an impact greater than their abundance
What do Keystone Species do?
Helps define an entire ecosystem
How do decomposers impact an ecosystem?
recycle nutrients and replenish the soil
How do Ecosystem engineers impact an ecosysetm?
Can destroy an ecosystem
Trophic Cascade?
when top predators are lost consumers will over consume producers and alter entire ecosystem
What are distubrnaces?
Rapid and Drastic events on the community and ecosystem.
What are severe disturbances?
disturbances that may eliminate all or most of the species in a community imitating series of changes
Primary Succession
Occurs when a disturbance removes all plant or soil life
Secondary Succession
alters the biotic community but soil intact.
Biomass?
collective mass of living matter in a given place or time
What are Detrivores?
Mutualistis?
Two or more species benefit each other
Herbivores
feed on tissues of the plants
Parasitism
relationship where on organisms depends on the other for nourishment
What are pathogens
Parasites that cause diseases
What is a niche?
Species role in an ecosystem resource use
Competition Exclusion
if one species is stronger competitor it may exclude other species from the resource.
Intraspecific Competition
same members of the same speices
Predaption
Process by which individuals of one species capture
