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Flashcards in Community Ecology Deck (21)
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1
Q

Ecological niche

A

The distinctive lifestyle and role of an organism in a community. It takes into account all abiotic and biotic aspects of the organism’s existence.

2
Q

Fundamental niche

A

The potential ecological niche for an organism.

3
Q

Realized niche

A

The niche it actually occupies is its realized niche.

4
Q

Competitive exlusion principle

A

Two species cannot occupy the same niche in the same community for an indefinite period; one species is excluded by another as a result of competition for a limiting resource.

5
Q

Resource partitioning

A

The evolution of differences in resource use. It reduces competition between similar species.

6
Q

Character displacement

A

A way to reduce competition in which their structural, ecological, and behavioral characteristics diverge where their ranges overlap.

7
Q

Symbiosis

A

It is any intimate or long-term association between two or more species. There are three types of symbiosis.

8
Q

Mutualism

A

Both species benefit from each other.

9
Q

Commensalism

A

One organism benefits and the other is unaffected.

10
Q

Keystone species

A

They are present in relatively small numbers but are crucial in determining the species composition and ecosystem functioning of the entire community.

11
Q

Dominant species

A

In contrast to keystone species, dominant species greatly affect the community of which they are a part because they are very common.

12
Q

Botton-up processes

A

If they dominate an ecosystem, the availability of resources such as minerals controls the number of producers, which controls the number of herbivores, which control the number of carnivores.

13
Q

Top-down processes

A

They regulate ecosystems from the highest trophic level by consumers eating producers. If top-down processes dominate an ecosystem, an increase in the number of top predators cascades down the food web through the herbivores and producers.

14
Q

Species richness

A

The number of species within a community.

15
Q

Species diversity

A

A measure of the relative importance of each species within a community based on abundance, productivity or size.

16
Q

Succession

A

It is the orderly replacement of one community by another.

17
Q

Primary succession

A

It occurs in an area that has not previously been inhabited.

18
Q

Secondary succession

A

It begins in an area where there was a pre-existing community and well-formed soil.

19
Q

Intermediate disturbance hypothesis

A

According to it, species richness is greatest at moderate levels of disturbance, which create a mosaic of habitat patches at different stages of succession.

20
Q

The organismic model

A

It views a community as a “super-organism” that goes through certain stages of development (succession) toward adulthood (climax). Biological interactions are primarily responsible for species composition and organisms are highly interdependent.

21
Q

Individualistic model

A

The most supported.
Abiotic environmental factors are the primary determinants of species composition in a community, and organisms are somewhat independent of one another.